Partial file restore in a data storage system

ABSTRACT

The data storage system according to certain aspects can implement partial file restore, where only a portion of the secondary copy of a file is restored. Such portion may be designated by one or more application offsets for the file. The system may provide an in-chunk index that includes mapping information between the application offsets and the secondary copy offsets. Chunks may refer to logical data units in which secondary copies are stored, and the in-chunk index for a chunk may be stored in secondary storage with the chunk. Because the mapping information may not be provided at a fixed interval, the system can search through application offsets in the in-chunk index to locate the secondary copy offset corresponding to the portion application offset(s). In this manner, the system may restore the designated portion of the secondary copy in a fast and efficient manner by using the in-chunk index.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

Any and all priority claims identified in the Application Data Sheet, orany correction thereto, are hereby incorporated by reference under 37CFR 1.57.

BACKGROUND

Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data andseek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored ontheir computer networks while minimizing impact on productivity.Protecting information is often part of a routine process that isperformed within an organization.

A company might back up critical computing systems such as databases,file servers, web servers, and so on as part of a daily, weekly, ormonthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarly protectcomputing systems used by each of its employees, such as those used byan accounting department, marketing department, engineering department,and so forth.

Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management, companiesalso continue to seek innovative techniques for managing data growth, inaddition to protecting data. For instance, companies often implementmigration techniques for moving data to lower cost storage over time anddata reduction techniques for reducing redundant data, pruning lowerpriority data, etc.

Enterprises also increasingly view their stored data as a valuableasset. Along these lines, customers are looking for solutions that notonly protect and manage, but also leverage their data. For instance,solutions providing data analysis capabilities, improved datapresentation and access features, and the like, are in increasingdemand.

Enterprises may restore backed up data, for example, when the data inprimary storage becomes corrupt or unavailable. However, not all of thedata may need to be restored. In many cases, users may only want torestore a portion of a file or other data.

SUMMARY

Due to the above challenges, there is a need for restoring portions offiles from secondary storage. In order to address these and otherchallenges, certain storage systems disclosed herein are configured toimplement partial file restore. Files in primary storage may be copiedto secondary storage (e.g., during a backup or other secondary copyoperation). Partial file restore may refer to restoring a portion of thesecondary copy of a file or other data unit, instead of the entiresecondary copy. Restoring only the desired portion can save asignificant amount of time, especially for large files like movie files.

The user may indicate the portion of the secondary copy to restore usingan interface of the native application associated with the file. As justone illustrative example, a user drags a playback slider in a graphicaluser interface (GUI) of a video playback application to begin playingthe video at some intermediate point in the video file. And, theintermediate point corresponds to an application offset which designatesthe starting position for the portion of the file to be restored.However, while the native application can use the application offsets toaccess selected portions of files, application offsets may not map tocorresponding offsets in the secondary copy of the file. For example,secondary copies may include backup-related metadata (e.g., in aheader). In addition, the data for the secondary copy may have beendeduplicated, compressed, etc. Accordingly, certain embodimentsdescribed herein advantageously map between native application offsetsand secondary copy offsets, which can allow for access to selectedportions of files stored in secondary storage in a fast and efficientmanner.

The data storage system according to certain aspects can provide one ormore in-chunk indexes that include the mapping information for one ormore files. Secondary copies in the system may be stored in logical dataunits, which may be referred to as “chunks.” For instance, secondarycopies may be formatted and/or organized as a series of chunks and maybe written to secondary storage on a chunk-by-chunk basis. This canfacilitate efficient communication and writing to secondary storage. Forexample, larger chunk sizes can provide better throughput when writingdata to secondary storage (e.g., tape media).

Each chunk may have associated metadata information or index files. Thein-chunk index for a chunk may be included in the chunk metadatainformation, or may be an index file associated with the chunk. Thein-chunk index can be written to secondary storage with the chunk. Themapping information for a secondary copy can become quite extensivesince mapping information can be created for numerous points in thefile. Storing the in-chunk index in secondary storage, along with thesecondary copy, can provide certain advantages. For instance, thisapproach can help maintain the sizes of indexes associated with othercomponents in the system (e.g., the storage manager, the media agent,etc.) at manageable levels.

The in-chunk index may include any information relating to mappingbetween application offsets and secondary copy offsets. For example, thein-chunk index can include a list of application offsets and theircorresponding secondary offsets. The in-chunk index may also indicatethe physical byte position in the chunk that corresponds to thesecondary offset. A file may span across multiple chunks, and thephysical byte position information can facilitate locating the actualbyte position for the secondary copy offset in a particular chunk. Achunk can include multiple files, and the in-chunk index may include themapping information for all the files in the chunk. In such cases, thein-chunk index may also indicate which application offsets belong towhich files in the chunk.

The in-chunk index may be created and stored while performing a storageoperation, such as a backup or an archive operation, and can be accessedat the time of restore in order to find the corresponding secondary copyoffset for the user selected application offset. As mentioned above, theuser can indicate one or more application offsets for the portion of thefile to be restored (e.g., via the application user interface). Themapping information between the application offsets and the secondarycopy offsets may not be provided at a fixed interval (e.g., due to thedynamic nature of amount of data written to a buffer during a storageoperation). Accordingly, the system may perform a search through variousapplication offsets in the in-chunk index to locate the correspondingsecondary copy offset. Various search techniques may be used, includinga binary search.

The in-chunk index can be provided at a desired level of granularitydepending on the requirements of the system. However, the in-chunk indexmay not include the exact application offset selected by the user. Insuch cases, the search through the in-chunk index may locate the nearestsecondary copy offset (e.g., the application offset prior to the userselected application offset). The system can provide information aboutthe actual restore application offset so that the application can beaware that the restored portion does not start exactly from the userselected application offset.

In this manner, the data storage system according to certain aspects canrestore a portion of a secondary storage file in a fast and efficientmanner. By providing mapping information between application offsets andsecondary copy offsets, the system can quickly locate the correspondingor nearest secondary copy offset for the user selected applicationoffset. Using the in-chunk index, the system can provide a fast responsetime for the restore and a positive user experience. In addition, themapping information may be stored in secondary storage, which can reducethe amount of data included in the storage manager index, media managerindex, etc. By allowing partial file restore, the system may reduce theamount of time and resources for restoring files from secondary storage.

According to some embodiments, a method of storing files in secondarystorage in a data storage system is provided. The method may includeinitiating copying of a plurality of files from primary storage tosecondary storage, wherein data stored on the secondary storage isorganized in one or more chunks, each chunk being a logical data unit.The method may also include copying a first portion of a first file ofthe plurality of files from the primary storage to a buffer for writingto the secondary storage. The method may further include creating afirst entry in an index associated with a first chunk of the one or morechunks, the index stored in association with the first chunk, the firstentry corresponding to the first portion of the first file andcomprising: a first application offset corresponding to the firstportion and associated with a software application used to access thefirst file; and a first secondary storage offset indicating a locationof the first portion within the first chunk in the secondary storage.The method can additionally include copying a second portion of thefirst file from the primary storage to the buffer for writing to thesecondary storage. The method can also include creating a second entryin the index associated with the first chunk, the second entrycomprising: a second application offset corresponding to the secondportion and associated with the software application; and a secondsecondary storage offset indicating a location of the second portionwithin the first chunk in the secondary storage. The method can furtherinclude writing the first portion to the location indicated by the firstsecondary storage offset. The method may additionally include writingthe second portion to the location indicated by the second secondarystorage offset.

According to certain embodiments, a data storage system for storingfiles in secondary storage is provided. The system may include a storagemanager executing on computer hardware. The storage manager may beconfigured to initiate copying of a plurality of files from primarystorage to secondary storage, wherein data stored on the secondarystorage is organized in one or more chunks, each chunk being a logicaldata unit. The system may also include one or more computing devicescomprising computer hardware. The one or more computing devices may beconfigured to copy a first portion of the first file of the plurality offiles from the primary storage to a buffer for writing to the secondarystorage. The one or more computing devices may also be configured tocreate a first entry in an index associated with a first chunk of theone or more chunks, the index stored in association with the firstchunk, the first entry corresponding to the first portion of the firstfile and comprising: a first application offset corresponding to thefirst portion and associated with a software application used to accessthe file; and a first secondary storage offset indicating a location ofthe first portion within the first chunk in the secondary storage. Theone or more computing devices can also be configured to copy a secondportion of the first file from the primary storage to the buffer forwriting to the secondary storage. The one or more computing devices canbe further configured to create a second entry in the index associatedwith the first chunk, the second entry comprising: a second applicationoffset corresponding to the second portion and associated with thesoftware application; and a second secondary storage offset indicating alocation of the second portion within the first chunk in the secondarystorage. The one or more computing devices can additionally beconfigured to write the first portion to the location indicated by thefirst secondary storage offset. The one or more computing devices may befurther configured to write the second portion to the location indicatedby the second secondary storage offset.

According to other embodiments, a method of partially restoring asecondary copy of a file stored in a data storage system is provided.The method may include receiving an instruction to restore a portion ofa secondary copy of a file stored in secondary storage to primarystorage for use by a software application, data stored in the secondarystorage being organized in one or more chunks, each chunk being alogical data unit, wherein the instruction comprises a startingapplication offset corresponding to a beginning of the portion of thefile to be restored, the starting application offset associated with thesoftware application. The method may also include identifying, usingcomputer hardware, a chunk in the secondary storage that includes a partof the secondary copy corresponding to the starting application offset.The method can also include accessing, using computer hardware, an indexstored in association with the chunk, wherein the index comprises aplurality of entries, each entry of the plurality of entries listing andproviding a mapping between a respective application offset and acorresponding respective secondary storage offset, the respectiveapplication offset associated with the software application, therespective secondary storage offset corresponding to an offset withinthe secondary copy of the file. The method can further includedetermining, using computer hardware, a first entry in the plurality ofentries that references a respective application offset that correspondsto the starting application offset. The method can additionally includeusing the respective secondary storage offset of the first entry torestore a portion in the chunk from the secondary storage to the primarystorage.

According to some embodiments, a data storage system for partiallyrestoring a secondary copy of a file is provided. The system may includea storage manager executing on computer hardware and configured toreceive an instruction to restore a portion of a secondary copy of afile stored in secondary storage to primary storage for use by asoftware application, data stored in the secondary storage beingorganized in one or more chunks, each chunk being a logical data unit,wherein the instruction comprises a starting application offsetcorresponding to a beginning of the portion of the file to be restored,the starting application offset associated with the softwareapplication. The system may also include one or more computing devicescomprising computer hardware. The one or more computing devices may beconfigured to identify a chunk in the secondary storage that includes apart of the secondary copy corresponding to the starting applicationoffset. The one or more computing devices may also be configured toaccess an index stored in association with the chunk, wherein the indexcomprises a plurality of entries, each entry of the plurality of entrieslisting and providing a mapping between a respective application offsetand a corresponding respective secondary storage offset, the respectiveapplication offset associated with the software application, therespective secondary storage offset corresponding to an offset withinthe secondary copy of the file. The one or more computing devices canalso be configured to determine a first entry in the plurality ofentries that references a respective application offset that correspondsto the starting application offset. The one or more computing devicescan additionally be configured to use the respective secondary storageoffset of the first entry to restore a portion in the chunk from thesecondary storage to the primary storage.

For purposes of summarizing the disclosure, certain aspects, advantagesand novel features of the inventions have been described herein. It isto be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may beachieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention.Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner thatachieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taughtherein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taughtor suggested herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondarystorage device, and some examples of primary data and secondary copydata.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management systemincluding a storage manager, one or more data agents, and one or moremedia agents.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations according to anexemplary storage policy.

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrative of the interaction betweenthe various components of an exemplary storage system configured toimplement an in-chunk index for partial file restore, according tocertain embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram illustrative of the interaction betweenthe various components of another exemplary storage system configured toimplement partial file restore, according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrative of one embodiment of a routine forcreating in-chunk index for partial file restore.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrative of one embodiment of a routine forrestoring a file using partial file restore.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described herein for partial restore ofsecondary storage files. Examples of such systems and methods arediscussed in further detail herein, e.g., with respect to FIGS. 2-5.Moreover, it will be appreciated partial file restore may be implementedby information management systems such as those that will now bedescribed with respect to FIGS. 1A-1E. And, as will be described, thecomponentry for implementing partial file restore can be incorporatedinto such systems.

Information Management System Overview

With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,organizations simply cannot afford to take the risk of losing criticaldata. Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern realities makeprotecting and managing data an increasingly difficult task. There istherefore a need for efficient, powerful, and user-friendly solutionsfor protecting and managing data.

Depending on the size of the organization, there are typically many dataproduction sources which are under the purview of tens, hundreds, oreven thousands of employees or other individuals. In the past,individual employees were sometimes responsible for managing andprotecting their data. A patchwork of hardware and software pointsolutions have been applied in other cases. These solutions were oftenprovided by different vendors and had limited or no interoperability.

Certain embodiments described herein provide systems and methods capableof addressing these and other shortcomings of prior approaches byimplementing unified, organization-wide information management. FIG. 1Ashows one such information management system 100, which generallyincludes combinations of hardware and software configured to protect andmanage data and metadata generated and used by the various computingdevices in the information management system 100.

The organization which employs the information management system 100 maybe a corporation or other business entity, non-profit organization,educational institution, household, governmental agency, or the like.

Generally, the systems and associated components described herein may becompatible with and/or provide some or all of the functionality of thesystems and corresponding components described in one or more of thefollowing U.S. patents and patent application publications assigned toCommVault Systems, Inc., each of which is hereby incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein:

-   -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010-0332456, entitled “DATA OBJECT STORE AND        SERVER FOR A CLOUD STORAGE ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING DATA        DEDUPLICATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT ACROSS MULTIPLE CLOUD STORAGE        SITES”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled “MODULAR BACKUP AND RETRIEVAL        SYSTEM USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A STORAGE AREA NETWORK”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled “HIERARCHICAL SYSTEMS AND        METHODS FOR PROVIDING A UNIFIED VIEW OF STORAGE INFORMATION”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled “HIERARCHICAL BACKUP AND        RETRIEVAL SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR        DYNAMICALLY PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER        NETWORK”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579, entitled “METABASE FOR FACILITATING        DATA CLASSIFICATION”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled “MANAGING COPIES OF DATA”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR        MONITORING APPLICATION DATA IN A DATA REPLICATION SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR        PERFORMING A SNAPSHOT AND FOR RESTORING DATA”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR        PERFORMING AUXILIARY STORAGE OPERATIONS”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0084268, entitled “CONTENT-ALIGNED,        BLOCK-BASED DEDUPLICATION”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD TO        SUPPORT SINGLE INSTANCE STORAGE OPERATIONS”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0329534, entitled “APPLICATION-AWARE AND        REMOTE SINGLE INSTANCE DATA MANAGEMENT”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, entitled “DISTRIBUTED        DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled “CLIENT-SIDE        REPOSITORY IN A NETWORKED DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OFFLINE        INDEXING OF CONTENT AND CLASSIFYING STORED DATA”; and    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR        STORED DATA VERIFICATION”.

The illustrated information management system 100 includes one or moreclient computing device 102 having at least one application 110executing thereon, and one or more primary storage devices 104 storingprimary data 112. The client computing device(s) 102 and the primarystorage devices 104 may generally be referred to in some cases as aprimary storage subsystem 117.

Depending on the context, the term “information management system” canrefer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and softwarecomponents. Or, in other instances, the term may refer to only a subsetof the illustrated components.

For instance, in some cases information management system 100 generallyrefers to a combination of specialized components used to protect, move,manage, manipulate and/or process data and metadata generated by theclient computing devices 102. However, the term may generally not referto the underlying components that generate and/or store the primary data112, such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, theapplications 110 and operating system residing on the client computingdevices 102, and the primary storage devices 104.

As an example, “information management system” may sometimes refer onlyto one or more of the following components and corresponding datastructures: storage managers, data agents, and media agents. Thesecomponents will be described in further detail below.

Client Computing Devices

There are typically a variety of sources in an organization that producedata to be protected and managed. As just one illustrative example, in acorporate environment such data sources can be employee workstations andcompany servers such as a mail server, a web server, or the like. In theinformation management system 100, the data generation sources includethe one or more client computing devices 102.

The client computing devices 102 may include, without limitation, one ormore: workstations, personal computers, desktop computers, or othertypes of generally fixed computing systems such as mainframe computersand minicomputers.

The client computing devices 102 can also include mobile or portablecomputing devices, such as one or more laptops, tablet computers,personal data assistants, mobile phones (such as smartphones), and othermobile or portable computing devices such as embedded computers, set topboxes, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable computers, etc.

In some cases, each client computing device 102 is associated with oneor more users and/or corresponding user accounts, of employees or otherindividuals.

The term “client computing device” is used herein because theinformation management system 100 generally “serves” the data managementand protection needs for the data generated by the client computingdevices 102. However, the use of this term does not imply that theclient computing devices 102 cannot be “servers” in other respects. Forinstance, a particular client computing device 102 may act as a serverwith respect to other devices, such as other client computing devices102. As just a few examples, the client computing devices 102 caninclude mail servers, file servers, database servers, and web servers.

The client computing devices 102 may additionally include virtualizedand/or cloud computing resources. For instance, one or more virtualmachines may be provided to the organization by a third-party cloudservice vendor. Or, in some embodiments, the client computing devices102 include one or more virtual machine(s) running on a virtual machinehost computing device operated by the organization. As one example, theorganization may use one virtual machine as a database server andanother virtual machine as a mail server. A virtual machine manager(VMM) (e.g., a Hypervisor) may manage the virtual machines, and resideand execute on the virtual machine host computing device.

Each client computing device 102 may have one or more applications 110(e.g., software applications) executing thereon which generate andmanipulate the data that is to be protected from loss.

The applications 110 generally facilitate the operations of anorganization (or multiple affiliated organizations), and can include,without limitation, mail server applications (e.g., Microsoft ExchangeServer), file server applications, mail client applications (e.g.,Microsoft Exchange Client), database applications (e.g., SQL, Oracle,SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word processing applications (e.g.,Microsoft Word), spreadsheet applications, financial applications,presentation applications, browser applications, mobile applications,entertainment applications, and so on.

The applications 110 can include at least one operating system (e.g.,Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, other Unix-basedoperating systems, etc.), which may support one or more file systems andhost the other applications 110.

As shown, the client computing devices 102 and other components in theinformation management system 100 can be connected to one another viaone or more communication pathways 114. The communication pathways 114can include one or more networks or other connection types including asany of following, without limitation: the Internet, a wide area network(WAN), a local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a FibreChannel connection, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connection,a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring or TCP/IP based network,an intranet network, a point-to-point link, a cellular network, awireless data transmission system, a two-way cable system, aninteractive kiosk network, a satellite network, a broadband network, abaseband network, other appropriate wired, wireless, or partiallywired/wireless computer or telecommunications networks, combinations ofthe same or the like. The communication pathways 114 in some cases mayalso include application programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g.,cloud service provider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs.

Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 according to some embodiments is production data orother “live” data generated by the operating system and otherapplications 110 residing on a client computing device 102. The primarydata 112 is stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and is organizedvia a file system supported by the client computing device 102. Forinstance, the client computing device(s) 102 and correspondingapplications 110 may create, access, modify, write, delete, andotherwise use primary data 112.

Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the sourceapplication 110. According to certain aspects, primary data 112 is aninitial or first (e.g., created before any other copies or before atleast one other copy) stored copy of data generated by the sourceapplication 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is created substantiallydirectly from data generated by the corresponding source applications110.

The primary data 112 may sometimes be referred to as a “primary copy” inthe sense that it is a discrete set of data. However, the use of thisterm does not necessarily imply that the “primary copy” is a copy in thesense that it was copied or otherwise derived from another storedversion.

The primary storage devices 104 storing the primary data 112 may berelatively fast and/or expensive (e.g., a disk drive, a hard-disk array,solid state memory, etc.). In addition, primary data 112 may be intendedfor relatively short term retention (e.g., several hours, days, orweeks).

According to some embodiments, the client computing device 102 canaccess primary data 112 from the primary storage device 104 by makingconventional file system calls via the operating system. Primary data112 representing files may include structured data (e.g., databasefiles), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or semi-structureddata. Some specific examples are described below with respect to FIG.1B.

It can be useful in performing certain tasks to break the primary data112 up into units of different granularities. In general, primary data112 can include files, directories, file system volumes, data blocks,extents, or any other types or granularities of data objects. As usedherein, a “data object” can refer to both (1) any file that is currentlyaddressable by a file system or that was previously addressable by thefile system (e.g., an archive file) and (2) a subset of such a file.

As will be described in further detail, it can also be useful inperforming certain functions of the information management system 100 toaccess and modify metadata within the primary data 112. Metadatagenerally includes information about data objects or characteristicsassociated with the data objects.

Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the following:the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates the data), thelast modified time (e.g., the time of the most recent modification ofthe data object), a data object name (e.g., a file name), a data objectsize (e.g., a number of bytes of data), information about the content(e.g., an indication as to the existence of a particular search term),to/from information for email (e.g., an email sender, recipient, etc.),creation date, file type (e.g., format or application type), lastaccessed time, application type (e.g., type of application thatgenerated the data object), location/network (e.g., a current, past orfuture location of the data object and network pathways to/from the dataobject), frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object ismodified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that generates,manages or is otherwise associated with the data object), and aginginformation (e.g., a schedule, such as a time period, in which the dataobject is migrated to secondary or long term storage), boot sectors,partition layouts, file location within a file folder directorystructure, user permissions, owners, groups, access control lists[ACLs]), system metadata (e.g., registry information), combinations ofthe same or the like.

In addition to metadata generated by or related to file systems andoperating systems, some of the applications 110 maintain indices ofmetadata for data objects, e.g., metadata associated with individualemail messages. Thus, each data object may be associated withcorresponding metadata. The use of metadata to perform classificationand other functions is described in greater detail below.

Each of the client computing devices 102 are associated with and/or incommunication with one or more of the primary storage devices 104storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computing device 102may be considered to be “associated with” or “in communication with” aprimary storage device 104 if it is capable of one or more of: storingdata to the primary storage device 104, retrieving data from the primarystorage device 104, and modifying data retrieved from a primary storagedevice 104.

The primary storage devices 104 can include, without limitation, diskdrives, hard-disk arrays, semiconductor memory (e.g., solid statedrives), and network attached storage (NAS) devices. In some cases, theprimary storage devices 104 form part of a distributed file system. Theprimary storage devices 104 may have relatively fast I/O times and/orare relatively expensive in comparison to the secondary storage devices108. For example, the information management system 100 may generallyregularly access data and metadata stored on primary storage devices104, whereas data and metadata stored on the secondary storage devices108 is accessed relatively less frequently.

In some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to anassociated client computing devices 102. For instance, a primary storagedevice 104 in one embodiment is a local disk drive of a correspondingclient computing device 102. In other cases, one or more primary storagedevices 104 can be shared by multiple client computing devices 102. Asone example, a primary storage device 104 can be a disk array shared bya group of client computing devices 102, such as one of the followingtypes of disk arrays: EMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, DellEqualLogic, IBM XIV, NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.

The information management system 100 may also include hosted services(not shown), which may be hosted in some cases by an entity other thanthe organization that employs the other components of the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, the hosted services may be providedby various online service providers to the organization. Such serviceproviders can provide services including social networking services,hosted email services, or hosted productivity applications or otherhosted applications).

Hosted services may include software-as-a-service (SaaS),platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPs),cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionality via anetwork. As it provides services to users, each hosted service maygenerate additional data and metadata under management of theinformation management system 100, e.g., as primary data 112. In somecases, the hosted services may be accessed using one of the applications110. As an example, a hosted mail service may be accessed via browserrunning on a client computing device 102.

Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices

The primary data 112 stored on the primary storage devices 104 may becompromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately oraccidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112 during their normalcourse of work. Or the primary storage devices 104 can be damaged orotherwise corrupted.

For recovery and/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is thereforeuseful to generate copies of the primary data 112. Accordingly, theinformation management system 100 includes one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and one or more secondary storage devices 108configured to create and store one or more secondary copies 116 of theprimary data 112 and associated metadata. The secondary storagecomputing devices 106 and the secondary storage devices 108 may bereferred to in some cases as a secondary storage subsystem 118.

Creation of secondary copies 116 can help meet information managementgoals, such as: restoring data and/or metadata if an original version(e.g., of primary data 112) is lost (e.g., by deletion, corruption, ordisaster); allowing point-in-time recovery; complying with regulatorydata retention and electronic discovery (e-discovery) requirements;reducing utilized storage capacity; facilitating organization and searchof data; improving user access to data files across multiple computingdevices and/or hosted services; and implementing data retentionpolicies.

Types of secondary copy operations can include, without limitation,backup operations, archive operations, snapshot operations, replicationoperations (e.g., continuous data replication [CDR]), data retentionpolicies such as or information lifecycle management and hierarchicalstorage management operations, and the like. These specific typesoperations are discussed in greater detail below.

Regardless of the type of secondary copy operation, the client computingdevices 102 access or receive primary data 112 and communicate the data,e.g., over the communication pathways 114, for storage in the secondarystorage device(s) 108.

A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of applicationdata that is derived from one or more earlier created, stored copies(e.g., derived from primary data 112 or another secondary copy 116).Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may be intendedfor relatively long-term retention (e.g., weeks, months or years),before some or all of the data is moved to other storage or isdiscarded.

In some cases, a secondary copy 116 is a copy of application datacreated and stored subsequent to at least one other stored instance(e.g., subsequent to corresponding primary data 112 or to anothersecondary copy 116), in a different storage device than at least oneprevious stored copy, and/or remotely from at least one previous storedcopy. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in relatively slow and/or lowcost storage (e.g., magnetic tape). A secondary copy 116 may be storedin a backup or archive format, or in some other format different thanthe native source application format or other primary data format.

In some cases, secondary copies 116 are indexed so users can browse andrestore at another point in time. After creation of a secondary copy 116representative of certain primary data 112, a pointer or other locationindicia (e.g., a stub) may be placed in primary data 112, or beotherwise associated with primary data 112 to indicate the currentlocation on the secondary storage device(s) 108.

Since an instance a data object or metadata in primary data 112 maychange over time as it is modified by an application 110 (or hostedservice or the operating system), the information management system 100may create and manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a particular dataobject or metadata, each representing the state of the data object inprimary data 112 at a particular point in time. Moreover, since aninstance of a data object in primary data 112 may eventually be deletedfrom the primary storage device 104 and the file system, the informationmanagement system 100 may continue to manage point-in-timerepresentations of that data object, even though the instance in primarydata 112 no longer exists.

For virtualized computing devices the operating system and otherapplications 110 of the client computing device(s) 102 may executewithin or under the management of virtualization software (e.g., a VMM),and the primary storage device(s) 104 may comprise a virtual diskcreated on a physical storage device. The information management system100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files or other data objectsin a virtual disk file and/or secondary copies 116 of the entire virtualdisk file itself (e.g., of an entire .vmdk file).

Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding primarydata 112 in a variety of ways, some of which will now be described.First, as discussed, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a differentformat (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native format) than primarydata 112. For this or other reasons, secondary copies 116 may not bedirectly useable by the applications 110 of the client computing device102, e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise without modification,processing, or other intervention by the information management system100.

Secondary copies 116 are also often stored on a secondary storage device108 that is inaccessible to the applications 110 running on the clientcomputing devices 102 (and/or hosted services). Some secondary copies116 may be “offline copies,” in that they are not readily available(e.g. not mounted to tape or disk). Offline copies can include copies ofdata that the information management system 100 can access without humanintervention (e.g. tapes within an automated tape library, but not yetmounted in a drive), and copies that the information management system100 can access only with at least some human intervention (e.g. tapeslocated at an offsite storage site).

The secondary storage devices 108 can include any suitable type ofstorage device such as, without limitation, one or more tape libraries,disk drives or other magnetic, non-tape storage devices, optical mediastorage devices, solid state storage devices, NAS devices, combinationsof the same, and the like. In some cases, the secondary storage devices108 are provided in a cloud (e.g. a private cloud or one operated by athird-party vendor).

The secondary storage device(s) 108 in some cases comprises a disk arrayor a portion thereof. In some cases, a single storage device (e.g., adisk array) is used for storing both primary data 112 and at least somesecondary copies 116. In one example, a disk array capable of performinghardware snapshots stores primary data 112 and creates and storeshardware snapshots of the primary data 112 as secondary copies 116.

The Use of Intermediary Devices for Creating Secondary Copies

Creating secondary copies can be a challenging task. For instance, therecan be hundreds or thousands of client computing devices 102 continuallygenerating large volumes of primary data 112 to be protected. Also,there can be significant overhead involved in the creation of secondarycopies 116. Moreover, secondary storage devices 108 may be specialpurpose components, and interacting with them can require specializedintelligence.

In some cases, the client computing devices 102 interact directly withthe secondary storage device 108 to create the secondary copies 116.However, in view of the factors described above, this approach cannegatively impact the ability of the client computing devices 102 toserve the applications 110 and produce primary data 112. Further, theclient computing devices 102 may not be optimized for interaction withthe secondary storage devices 108.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100includes one or more software and/or hardware components which generallyact as intermediaries between the client computing devices 102 and thesecondary storage devices 108. In addition to off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102, theseintermediary components can provide other benefits. For instance, asdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 1D, distributing some ofthe work involved in creating secondary copies 116 can enhancescalability.

The intermediary components can include one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or one or more mediaagents, which can be software modules residing on correspondingsecondary storage computing devices 106 (or other appropriate devices).Media agents are discussed below (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E).

The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise anyappropriate type of computing device and can include, withoutlimitation, any of the types of fixed and portable computing devicesdescribed above with respect to the client computing devices 102. Insome cases, the secondary storage computing device(s) 106 includespecialized hardware and/or software componentry for interacting withthe secondary storage devices 108.

To create a secondary copy 116, the client computing device 102communicates the primary data 112 to be copied (or a processed versionthereof) to the designated secondary storage computing device 106, viathe communication pathway 114. The secondary storage computing device106 in turn conveys the received data (or a processed version thereof)to the secondary storage device 108. In some such configurations, thecommunication pathway 114 between the client computing device 102 andthe secondary storage computing device 106 comprises a portion of a LAN,WAN or SAN. In other cases, at least some client computing devices 102communicate directly with the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., viaFibre Channel or SCSI connections).

Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy

FIG. 1B is a detailed view showing some specific examples of primarydata stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary copy datastored on the secondary storage device(s) 108, with other components inthe system removed for the purposes of illustration. Stored on theprimary storage device(s) 104 are primary data objects including wordprocessing documents 119A-B, spreadsheets 120, presentation documents122, video files 124, image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (andcorresponding email messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markuplanguage files 130, databases 132 and corresponding tables 133A-133C).

Some or all primary data objects are associated with a primary copy ofobject metadata (e.g., “Meta1-11”), which may be file system metadataand/or application specific metadata. Stored on the secondary storagedevice(s) 108 are secondary copy objects 134A-C which may include copiesof or otherwise represent corresponding primary data objects andmetadata.

As shown, the secondary copy objects 134A-C can individually representmore than one primary data object. For example, secondary copy dataobject 134A represents three separate primary data objects 133C, 122 and129C (represented as 133C′, 122′ and 129C′, respectively). Moreover, asindicated by the prime mark (′), a secondary copy object may store arepresentation of a primary data object or metadata differently than theoriginal format, e.g., in a compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, orother modified format.

Exemplary Information Management System Architecture

The information management system 100 can incorporate a variety ofdifferent hardware and software components, which can in turn beorganized with respect to one another in many different configurations,depending on the embodiment. There are critical design choices involvedin specifying the functional responsibilities of the components and therole of each component in the information management system 100. Forinstance, as will be discussed, such design choices can impactperformance as well as the adaptability of the information managementsystem 100 to data growth or other changing circumstances.

FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed according tothese considerations and which includes: a central storage orinformation manager 140 configured to perform certain control functions,one or more data agents 142 executing on the client computing device(s)102 configured to process primary data 112, and one or more media agents144 executing on the one or more secondary storage computing devices 106for performing tasks involving the secondary storage devices 108.

Storage Manager

As noted, the number of components in the information management system100 and the amount of data under management can be quite large. Managingthe components and data is therefore a significant task, and a task thatcan grow in an often unpredictable fashion as the quantity of componentsand data scale to meet the needs of the organization.

For these and other reasons, according to certain embodiments,responsibility for controlling the information management system 100, orat least a significant portion of that responsibility, is allocated tothe storage manager 140.

By distributing control functionality in this manner, the storagemanager 140 can be adapted independently according to changingcircumstances. Moreover, a host computing device can be selected to bestsuit the functions of the storage manager 140. These and otheradvantages are described in further detail below with respect to FIG.1D.

The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other application.The storage manager generally initiates, coordinates and/or controlsstorage and other information management operations performed by theinformation management system 100, e.g., to protect and control theprimary data 112 and secondary copies 116 of data and metadata.

As shown by the dashed, arrowed lines, the storage manager 140 maycommunicate with and/or control some or all elements of the informationmanagement system 100, such as the data agents 142 and media agents 144.Thus, in certain embodiments, control information originates from thestorage manager 140, whereas payload data and metadata is generallycommunicated between the data agents 142 and the media agents 144 (orotherwise between the client computing device(s) 102 and the secondarystorage computing device(s) 106), e.g., at the direction of the storagemanager 140. In other embodiments, some information managementoperations are controlled by other components in the informationmanagement system 100 (e.g., the media agent(s) 144 or data agent(s)142), instead of or in combination with the storage manager 140.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager provides one ormore of the following functions:

-   -   initiating execution of secondary copy operations;    -   managing secondary storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of        the same;    -   allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary storage        operations;    -   monitoring completion of and providing status reporting related        to secondary storage operations;    -   tracking age information relating to secondary copies 116,        secondary storage devices 108, and comparing the age information        against retention guidelines;    -   tracking movement of data within the information management        system 100;    -   tracking logical associations between components in the        information management system 100;    -   protecting metadata associated with the information management        system 100; and    -   implementing operations management functionality.

The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 ofmanagement-related data and information management policies 148. Thedatabase 146 may include a management index 150 or other data structurethat stores logical associations between components of the system, userpreferences and/or profiles (e.g., preferences regarding encryption,compression, or deduplication of primary or secondary copy data,preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or other aspects of primaryor secondary copy or other operations, mappings of particularinformation management users or user accounts to certain computingdevices or other components, etc.), management tasks, mediacontainerization, or other useful data. For example, the storage manager140 may use the index 150 to track logical associations between mediaagents 144 and secondary storage devices 108 and/or movement of datafrom primary storage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108.

Administrators and other employees may be able to manually configure andinitiate certain information management operations on an individualbasis. But while this may be acceptable for some recovery operations orother relatively less frequent tasks, it is often not workable forimplementing on-going organization-wide data protection and management.

Thus, the information management system 100 may utilize informationmanagement policies 148 for specifying and executing informationmanagement operations (e.g., on an automated basis). Generally, aninformation management policy 148 can include a data structure or otherinformation source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g., criteriaand rules) associated with storage or other information managementoperations.

The storage manager database 146 may maintain the information managementpolicies 148 and associated data, although the information managementpolicies 148 can be stored in any appropriate location. For instance, astorage policy may be stored as metadata in a media agent database 152or in a secondary storage device 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for usein restore operations or other information management operations,depending on the embodiment. Information management policies 148 aredescribed further below.

According to certain embodiments, the storage manager database 146comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for trackingmetadata, such as metadata associated with secondary copy operations(e.g., what client computing devices 102 and corresponding data wereprotected). This and other metadata may additionally be stored in otherlocations, such as at the secondary storage computing devices 106 or onthe secondary storage devices 108, allowing data recovery without theuse of the storage manager 140.

As shown, the storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a userinterface 158, and a management agent 154, all of which may beimplemented as interconnected software modules or application programs.

The jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/ormonitors the status of some or all storage or other informationmanagement operations previously performed, currently being performed,or scheduled to be performed by the information management system 100.For instance, the jobs agent 156 may access information managementpolicies 148 to determine when and how to initiate and control secondarycopy and other information management operations, as will be discussedfurther.

The user interface 158 may include information processing and displaysoftware, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), an applicationprogram interface (“API”), or other interactive interface through whichusers and system processes can retrieve information about the status ofinformation management operations (e.g., storage operations) or issueinstructions to the information management system 100 and itsconstituent components.

The storage manager 140 may also track information that permits it toselect, designate, or otherwise identify content indices, deduplicationdatabases, or similar databases or resources or data sets within itsinformation management cell (or another cell) to be searched in responseto certain queries. Such queries may be entered by the user viainteraction with the user interface 158.

Via the user interface 158, users may optionally issue instructions tothe components in the information management system 100 regardingperformance of storage and recovery operations. For example, a user maymodify a schedule concerning the number of pending secondary copyoperations. As another example, a user may employ the GUI to view thestatus of pending storage operations or to monitor the status of certaincomponents in the information management system 100 (e.g., the amount ofcapacity left in a storage device).

In general, the management agent 154 allows multiple informationmanagement systems 100 to communicate with one another. For example, theinformation management system 100 in some cases may be one informationmanagement subsystem or “cell” of a network of multiple cells adjacentto one another or otherwise logically related in a WAN or LAN. With thisarrangement, the cells may be connected to one another throughrespective management agents 154.

For instance, the management agent 154 can provide the storage manager140 with the ability to communicate with other components within theinformation management system 100 (and/or other cells within a largerinformation management system) via network protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (“APIs”) including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST,virtualization software APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs. Inter-cell communication and hierarchy isdescribed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, which isincorporated by reference herein.

Data Agents

As discussed, a variety of different types of applications 110 canreside on a given client computing device 102, including operatingsystems, database applications, e-mail applications, and virtualmachines, just to name a few. And, as part of the as part of the processof creating and restoring secondary copies 116, the client computingdevices 102 may be tasked with processing and preparing the primary data112 from these various different applications 110. Moreover, the natureof the processing/preparation can differ across clients and applicationtypes, e.g., due to inherent structural and formatting differencesbetween applications 110.

The one or more data agent(s) 142 are therefore advantageouslyconfigured in some embodiments to assist in the performance ofinformation management operations based on the type of data that isbeing protected, at a client-specific and/or application-specific level.

The data agent 142 may be a software module or component that isgenerally responsible for managing, initiating, or otherwise assistingin the performance of information management operations. For instance,the data agent 142 may take part in performing data storage operationssuch as the copying, archiving, migrating, replicating of primary data112 stored in the primary storage device(s) 104. The data agent 142 mayreceive control information from the storage manager 140, such ascommands to transfer copies of data objects, metadata, and other payloaddata to the media agents 144.

In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between theclient computing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any otherintermediate components) or may be deployed from a remote location orits functions approximated by a remote process that performs some or allof the functions of data agent 142. In addition, a data agent 142 mayperform some functions provided by a media agent 144, e.g., encryptionand deduplication.

As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particularapplication 110, and the system can employ multiple data agents 142,each of which may backup, migrate, and recover data associated with adifferent application 110. For instance, different individual dataagents 142 may be designed to handle Microsoft Exchange data, LotusNotes data, Microsoft Windows file system data, Microsoft ActiveDirectory Objects data, SQL Server data, SharePoint data, Oracledatabase data, SAP database data, virtual machines and/or associateddata, and other types of data.

A file system data agent, for example, may handle data files and/orother file system information. If a client computing device 102 has twoor more types of data, one data agent 142 may be used for each data typeto copy, archive, migrate, and restore the client computing device 102data. For example, to backup, migrate, and restore all of the data on aMicrosoft Exchange server, the client computing device 102 may use oneMicrosoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to backup the Exchangemailboxes, one Microsoft Exchange Database data agent 142 to backup theExchange databases, one Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent 142to backup the Exchange Public Folders, and one Microsoft Windows FileSystem data agent 142 to backup the file system of the client computingdevice 102. In such embodiments, these data agents 142 may be treated asfour separate data agents 142 by even though they reside on the sameclient computing device 102.

Other embodiments may employ one or more generic data agents 142 thatcan handle and process data from two or more different applications 110,or that can handle and process multiple data types, instead of or inaddition to using specialized data agents 142. For example, one genericdata agent 142 may be used to back up, migrate and restore MicrosoftExchange Mailbox data and Microsoft Exchange Database data while anothergeneric data agent may handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data andMicrosoft Windows File System data.

Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or metadatastored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated with the dataagent 142 and process the data as appropriate. For example, during asecondary copy operation, the data agent 142 may arrange or assemble thedata and metadata into one or more files having a certain format (e.g.,a particular backup or archive format) before transferring the file(s)to a media agent 144 or other component. The file(s) may include a listof files or other metadata. Each data agent 142 can also assist inrestoring data or metadata to primary storage devices 104 from asecondary copy 116. For instance, the data agent 142 may operate inconjunction with the storage manager 140 and one or more of the mediaagents 144 to restore data from secondary storage device(s) 108.

Media Agents

As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading certainresponsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to intermediarycomponents such as the media agent(s) 144 can provide a number ofbenefits including improved client computing device 102 operation,faster secondary copy operation performance, and enhanced scalability.As one specific example which will be discussed below in further detail,the media agent 144 can act as a local cache of copied data and/ormetadata that it has stored to the secondary storage device(s) 108,providing improved restore capabilities.

Generally speaking, a media agent 144 may be implemented as a softwaremodule that manages, coordinates, and facilitates the transmission ofdata, as directed by the storage manager 140, between a client computingdevice 102 and one or more secondary storage devices 108. Whereas thestorage manager 140 controls the operation of the information managementsystem 100, the media agent 144 generally provides a portal to secondarystorage devices 108.

Media agents 144 can comprise logically and/or physically separate nodesin the information management system 100 (e.g., separate from the clientcomputing devices 102, storage manager 140, and/or secondary storagedevices 108). In addition, each media agent 144 may reside on adedicated secondary storage computing device 106 in some cases, while inother embodiments a plurality of media agents 144 reside on the samesecondary storage computing device 106.

A media agent 144 (and corresponding media agent database 152) may beconsidered to be “associated with” a particular secondary storage device108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or more of: routing and/orstoring data to the particular secondary storage device 108,coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularsecondary storage device 108, retrieving data from the particularsecondary storage device 108, and coordinating the retrieval of datafrom a particular secondary storage device 108.

While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one or moresecondary storage devices 108, the media agents 144 in certainembodiments are physically separate from the secondary storage devices108. For instance, the media agents 144 may reside on secondary storagecomputing devices 106 having different housings or packages than thesecondary storage devices 108. In one example, a media agent 144 resideson a first server computer and is in communication with a secondarystorage device(s) 108 residing in a separate, rack-mounted RAID-basedsystem.

In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular secondarystorage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage device 108 (e.g.,a tape library) to use a robotic arm or other retrieval means to load oreject a certain storage media, and to subsequently archive, migrate, orretrieve data to or from that media, e.g., for the purpose of restoringthe data to a client computing device 102. The media agent 144 maycommunicate with a secondary storage device 108 via a suitablecommunications link, such as a SCSI or Fiber Channel link.

As shown, each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agentdatabase 152. The media agent database 152 may be stored in a disk orother storage device (not shown) that is local to the secondary storagecomputing device 106 on which the media agent 144 resides. In othercases, the media agent database 152 is stored remotely from thesecondary storage computing device 106.

The media agent database 152 can include, among other things, an index153 including data generated during secondary copy operations and otherstorage or information management operations. The index 153 provides amedia agent 144 or other component with a fast and efficient mechanismfor locating secondary copies 116 or other data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108. In one configuration, a storage manager index 150or other data structure may store data associating a client computingdevice 102 with a particular media agent 144 and/or secondary storagedevice 108, as specified in a storage policy. A media agent index 153 orother data structure associated with the particular media agent 144 mayin turn include information about the stored data.

For instance, for each secondary copy 116, the index 153 may includemetadata such as a list of the data objects (e.g., files/subdirectories,database objects, mailbox objects, etc.), a path to the secondary copy116 on the corresponding secondary storage device 108, locationinformation indicating where the data objects are stored in thesecondary storage device 108, when the data objects were created ormodified, etc. Thus, the index 153 includes metadata associated with thesecondary copies 116 that is readily available for use in storageoperations and other activities without having to be first retrievedfrom the secondary storage device 108. In yet further embodiments, someor all of the data in the index 153 may instead or additionally bestored along with the data in a secondary storage device 108, e.g., witha copy of the index 153.

Because the index 153 maintained in the database 152 may operate as acache, it can also be referred to as an index cache. In such cases,information stored in the index cache 153 typically comprises data thatreflects certain particulars about storage operations that have occurredrelatively recently. After some triggering event, such as after acertain period of time elapses, or the index cache 153 reaches aparticular size, the index cache 153 may be copied or migrated to asecondary storage device(s) 108. This information may need to beretrieved and uploaded back into the index cache 153 or otherwiserestored to a media agent 144 to facilitate retrieval of data from thesecondary storage device(s) 108. In some embodiments, the cachedinformation may include format or containerization information relatedto archives or other files stored on the storage device(s) 108. In thismanner, the index cache 153 allows for accelerated restores.

In some alternative embodiments the media agent 144 generally acts as acoordinator or facilitator of storage operations between clientcomputing devices 102 and corresponding secondary storage devices 108,but does not actually write the data to the secondary storage device108. For instance, the storage manager 140 (or the media agent 144) mayinstruct a client computing device 102 and secondary storage device 108to communicate with one another directly. In such a case the clientcomputing device 102 transmits the data directly to the secondarystorage device 108 according to the received instructions, and viceversa. In some such cases, the media agent 144 may still receive,process, and/or maintain metadata related to the storage operations.Moreover, in these embodiments, the payload data can flow through themedia agent 144 for the purposes of populating the index cache 153maintained in the media agent database 152, but not for writing to thesecondary storage device 108.

The media agent 144 and/or other components such as the storage manager140 may in some cases incorporate additional functionality, such as dataclassification, content indexing, deduplication, encryption,compression, and the like. Further details regarding these and otherfunctions are described below.

Distributed, Scalable Architecture

As described, certain functions of the information management system 100can be distributed amongst various physical and/or logical components inthe system. For instance, one or more of the storage manager 140, dataagents 142, and media agents 144 may reside on computing devices thatare physically separate from one another. This architecture can providea number of benefits.

For instance, hardware and software design choices for each distributedcomponent can be targeted to suit its particular function. The secondarycomputing devices 106 on which the media agents 144 reside can betailored for interaction with associated secondary storage devices 108and provide fast index cache operation, among other specific tasks.Similarly, the client computing device(s) 102 can be selected toeffectively service the applications 110 residing thereon, in order toefficiently produce and store primary data 112.

Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components in theinformation management system 100 can be distributed to multiple,separate computing devices. As one example, for large file systems wherethe amount of data stored in the storage management database 146 isrelatively large, the management database 146 may be migrated to orotherwise reside on a specialized database server (e.g., an SQL server)separate from a server that implements the other functions of thestorage manager 140. This configuration can provide added protectionbecause the database 146 can be protected with standard databaseutilities (e.g., SQL log shipping or database replication) independentfrom other functions of the storage manager 140. The database 146 can beefficiently replicated to a remote site for use in the event of adisaster or other data loss incident at the primary site. Or thedatabase 146 can be replicated to another computing device within thesame site, such as to a higher performance machine in the event that astorage manager host device can no longer service the needs of a growinginformation management system 100.

The distributed architecture also provides both scalability andefficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of theinformation management system 100 including a plurality of clientcomputing devices 102 and associated data agents 142 as well as aplurality of secondary storage computing devices 106 and associatedmedia agents 144.

Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the evolvingneeds of the information management system 100. For instance, dependingon where bottlenecks are identified, administrators can add additionalclient computing devices 102, secondary storage devices 106 (andcorresponding media agents 144), and/or secondary storage devices 108.

Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some embodiments cancommunicate with any of the media agents 144, e.g., as directed by thestorage manager 140. And each media agent 144 may be able to communicatewith any of the secondary storage devices 108, e.g., as directed by thestorage manager 140. Thus, operations can be routed to the secondarystorage devices 108 in a dynamic and highly flexible manner. Furtherexamples of scalable systems capable of dynamic storage operations areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

In alternative configurations, certain components are not distributedand may instead reside and execute on the same computing device. Forexample, in some embodiments one or more data agents 142 and the storagemanager 140 reside on the same client computing device 102. In anotherembodiment, one or more data agents 142 and one or more media agents 144reside on a single computing device.

Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations

In order to protect and leverage stored data, the information managementsystem 100 can be configured to perform a variety of informationmanagement operations. As will be described, these operations cangenerally include secondary copy and other data movement operations,processing and data manipulation operations, and management operations.

Data Movement Operations

Data movement operations according to certain embodiments are generallyoperations that involve the copying or migration of data (e.g., payloaddata) between different locations in the information management system100. For example, data movement operations can include operations inwhich stored data is copied, migrated, or otherwise transferred fromprimary storage device(s) 104 to secondary storage device(s) 108, fromsecondary storage device(s) 108 to different secondary storage device(s)108, or from primary storage device(s) 104 to different primary storagedevice(s) 104.

Data movement operations can include by way of example, backupoperations, archive operations, information lifecycle managementoperations such as hierarchical storage management operations,replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication operations),snapshot operations, deduplication operations, single-instancingoperations, auxiliary copy operations, and the like. As will bediscussed, some of these operations involve the copying, migration orother movement of data, without actually creating multiple, distinctcopies. Nonetheless, some or all of these operations are referred to as“copy” operations for simplicity.

Backup Operations

A backup operation creates a copy of primary data 112 at a particularpoint in time. Each subsequent backup copy may be maintainedindependently of the first. Further, a backup copy in some embodimentsis stored in a backup format. This can be in contrast to the version inprimary data 112 from which the backup copy is derived, and which mayinstead be stored in a native format of the source application(s) 110.In various cases, backup copies can be stored in a format in which thedata is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modifiedfrom the original application format. For example, a backup copy may bestored in a backup format that facilitates compression and/or efficientlong-term storage.

Backup copies can have relatively long retention periods as compared toprimary data 112, and may be stored on media with slower retrieval timesthan primary data 112 and certain other types of secondary copies 116.On the other hand, backups may have relatively shorter retention periodsthan some other types of secondary copies 116, such as archive copies(described below). Backups may sometimes be stored at on offsitelocation.

Backup operations can include full, synthetic or incremental backups. Afull backup in some embodiments is generally a complete image of thedata to be protected. However, because full backup copies can consume arelatively large amount of storage, it can be useful to use a fullbackup copy as a baseline and only store changes relative to the fullbackup copy for subsequent backup copies.

For instance, a differential backup operation (or cumulative incrementalbackup operation) tracks and stores changes that have occurred since thelast full backup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size, but canprovide relatively efficient restore times because a restore can becompleted in some cases using only the full backup copy and the latestdifferential copy.

An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changessince the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly reducestorage utilization. In some cases, however, restore times can berelatively long in comparison to full or differential backups becausecompleting a restore operation may involve accessing a full backup inaddition to multiple incremental backups.

Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the file-level,e.g., where the information management system 100 generally trackschanges to files at the file-level, and includes copies of files in thebackup copy. In other cases, block-level backups are employed, wherefiles are broken into constituent blocks, and changes are tracked at theblock-level. Upon restore, the information management system 100reassembles the blocks into files in a transparent fashion.

Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the secondarystorage devices 108 during a block-level copy than during a file-levelcopy, resulting in faster execution times. However, when restoring ablock-level copy, the process of locating constituent blocks cansometimes result in longer restore times as compared to file-levelbackups. Similar to backup operations, the other types of secondary copyoperations described herein can also be implemented at either thefile-level or the block-level.

Archive Operations

Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version of thecopied data in primary data 112 and also maintaining backup copies insecondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume significant storagecapacity. To help reduce storage consumption, an archive operationaccording to certain embodiments creates a secondary copy 116 by bothcopying and removing source data. Or, seen another way, archiveoperations can involve moving some or all of the source data to thearchive destination. Thus, data satisfying criteria for removal (e.g.,data of a threshold age or size) from the source copy may be removedfrom source storage. Archive copies are sometimes stored in an archiveformat or other non-native application format. The source data may beprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116, depending on the situation. Aswith backup copies, archive copies can be stored in a format in whichthe data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwisemodified from the original application format.

In addition, archive copies may be retained for relatively long periodsof time (e.g., years) and, in some cases, are never deleted. Archivecopies are generally retained for longer periods of time than backupcopies, for example. In certain embodiments, archive copies may be madeand kept for extended periods in order to meet compliance regulations.

Moreover, when primary data 112 is archived, in some cases the archivedprimary data 112 or a portion thereof is deleted when creating thearchive copy. Thus, archiving can serve the purpose of freeing up spacein the primary storage device(s) 104. Similarly, when a secondary copy116 is archived, the secondary copy 116 may be deleted, and an archivecopy can therefore serve the purpose of freeing up space in secondarystorage device(s) 108. In contrast, source copies often remain intactwhen creating backup copies.

Snapshot Operations

Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficientmechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a snapshotmay be thought of as an “instant” image of the primary data 112 at agiven point in time. In one embodiment, a snapshot may generally capturethe directory structure of an object in primary data 112 such as a fileor volume or other data set at a particular moment in time and may alsopreserve file attributes and contents. A snapshot in some cases iscreated relatively quickly, e.g., substantially instantly, using aminimum amount of file space, but may still function as a conventionalfile system backup.

A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and withoutsignificantly impacting primary computing resources because largeamounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, asnapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual filesystem. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of filesand directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may also returnthe current file system to the state of the file system that existedwhen the snapshot was taken.

Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical copy ofall the data as it existed at the particular point in time, but maysimply create pointers that are able to map files and directories tospecific memory locations (e.g., disk blocks) where the data resides, asit existed at the particular point in time. For example, a snapshot copymay include a set of pointers derived from the file system or anapplication. Each pointer points to a respective stored data block, socollectively, the set of pointers reflect the storage location and stateof the data object (e.g., file(s) or volume(s) or data set(s)) at aparticular point in time when the snapshot copy was created.

In some embodiments, once a snapshot has been taken, subsequent changesto the file system typically do not overwrite the blocks in use at thetime of the snapshot. Therefore, the initial snapshot may use only asmall amount of disk space needed to record a mapping or other datastructure representing or otherwise tracking the blocks that correspondto the current state of the file system. Additional disk space isusually required only when files and directories are actually modifiedlater. Furthermore, when files are modified, typically only the pointerswhich map to blocks are copied, not the blocks themselves. In someembodiments, for example in the case of “copy-on-write” snapshots, whena block changes in primary storage, the block is copied to secondarystorage or cached in primary storage before the block is overwritten inprimary storage. The snapshot mapping of file system data is alsoupdated to reflect the changed block(s) at that particular point intime. In some other cases, a snapshot includes a full physical copy ofall or substantially all of the data represented by the snapshot.Further examples of snapshot operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,529,782, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Replication Operations

Another type of secondary copy operation is a replication operation.Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to periodically captureimages of primary data 112 at particular points in time (e.g., backups,archives, and snapshots). However, it can also be useful for recoverypurposes to protect primary data 112 in a more continuous fashion, byreplicating the primary data 112 substantially as changes occur. In somecases a replication copy can be a mirror copy, for instance, wherechanges made to primary data 112 are mirrored to another location (e.g.,to secondary storage device(s) 108). By copying each write operation tothe replication copy, two storage systems are kept synchronized orsubstantially synchronized so that they are virtually identical atapproximately the same time. Where entire disk volumes are mirrored,however, mirroring can require significant amount of storage space andutilizes a large amount of processing resources.

According to some embodiments storage operations are performed onreplicated data that represents a recoverable state, or “known goodstate” of a particular application running on the source system. Forinstance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies may beviewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows the system todirectly access, copy, restore, backup or otherwise manipulate thereplication copies as if the data was the “live”, primary data 112. Thiscan reduce access time, storage utilization, and impact on sourceapplications 110, among other benefits.

Based on known good state information, the information management system100 can replicate sections of application data that represent arecoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks of data. Examplesof compatible replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication)are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, which is incorporated byreference herein.

Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations

Another type of data movement operation is deduplication, which isuseful to reduce the amount of data within the system. For instance,some or all of the above-described secondary storage operations caninvolve deduplication in some fashion. New data is read, broken downinto blocks (e.g., sub-file level blocks) of a selected granularity,compared with blocks that are already stored, and only the new blocksare stored. Blocks that already exist are represented as pointers to thealready stored data.

In order to stream-line the comparison process, the informationmanagement system 100 may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g.,hashes) corresponding to the individual data blocks and compare thehashes instead of comparing entire data blocks. In some cases, only asingle instance of each element is stored, and deduplication operationsmay therefore be referred to interchangeably as “single-instancing”operations. Depending on the implementation, however, deduplication orsingle-instancing operations can store more than one instance of certaindata blocks, but nonetheless significantly reduce data redundancy.Moreover, single-instancing in some cases is distinguished fromdeduplication as a process of analyzing and reducing data at the filelevel, rather than the sub-file level.

Depending on the embodiment, deduplication blocks can be of fixed orvariable length. Using variable length blocks can provide enhanceddeduplication by responding to changes in the data stream, but caninvolve complex processing. In some cases, the information managementsystem 100 utilizes a technique for dynamically aligning deduplicationblocks (e.g., fixed-length blocks) based on changing content in the datastream, as described in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0084268, which isincorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 can perform deduplication in avariety of manners at a variety of locations in the informationmanagement system 100. For instance, in some embodiments, theinformation management system 100 implements “target-side” deduplicationby deduplicating data (e.g., secondary copies 116) stored in thesecondary storage devices 108. In some such cases, the media agents 144are generally configured to manage the deduplication process. Forinstance, one or more of the media agents 144 maintain a correspondingdeduplication database that stores deduplication information (e.g.,datablock signatures). Examples of such a configuration are provided inU.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826, which is incorporated by referenceherein. Deduplication can also be performed on the “source-side” (or“client-side”), e.g., to reduce the amount of traffic between the mediaagents 144 and the client computing device(s) 102 and/or reduceredundant data stored in the primary storage devices 104. Examples ofsuch deduplication techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2012/0150818, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage ManagementOperations

In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move frommore expensive, quick access storage to less expensive, slower accessstorage. Operations associated with moving data through various tiers ofstorage are sometimes referred to as information lifecycle management(ILM) operations.

One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management (HSM)operation. A HSM operation is generally an operation for automaticallymoving data between classes of storage devices, such as betweenhigh-cost and low-cost storage devices. For instance, an HSM operationmay involve movement of data from primary storage devices 104 tosecondary storage devices 108, or between tiers of secondary storagedevices 108. With each tier, the storage devices may be progressivelyrelatively cheaper, have relatively slower access/restore times, etc.For example, movement of data between tiers may occur as data becomesless important over time.

In some embodiments, an HSM operation is similar to an archive operationin that creating an HSM copy may (though not always) involve deletingsome of the source data. For example, an HSM copy may include data fromprimary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 that is larger than a givensize threshold or older than a given age threshold and that is stored ina backup format.

Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data that is removedor aged from the source copy is replaced by a logical reference pointeror stub. The reference pointer or stub can be stored in the primarystorage device 104 to replace the deleted data in primary data 112 (orother source copy) and to point to or otherwise indicate the newlocation in a secondary storage device 108.

According to one example, files are generally moved between higher andlower cost storage depending on how often the files are accessed. When auser requests access to the HSM data that has been removed or migrated,the information management system 100 uses the stub to locate the dataand often make recovery of the data appear transparent, even though theHSM data may be stored at a location different from the remaining sourcedata. The stub may also include some metadata associated with thecorresponding data, so that a file system and/or application can providesome information about the data object and/or a limited-functionalityversion (e.g., a preview) of the data object.

An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native applicationformat (e.g., where the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated,and/or otherwise modified from the original application format). In somecases, copies which involve the removal of data from source storage andthe maintenance of stub or other logical reference information on sourcestorage may be referred to generally as “on-line archive copies”. On theother hand, copies which involve the removal of data from source storagewithout the maintenance of stub or other logical reference informationon source storage may be referred to as “off-line archive copies”.

Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations

An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a copy iscreated of an existing secondary copy 116. For instance, an initial or“primary” secondary copy 116 may be generated using or otherwise bederived from primary data 112, whereas an auxiliary copy is generatedfrom the initial secondary copy 116. Auxiliary copies can be used tocreate additional standby copies of data and may reside on differentsecondary storage devices 108 than initial secondary copies 116. Thus,auxiliary copies can be used for recovery purposes if initial secondarycopies 116 become unavailable. Exemplary compatible auxiliary copytechniques are described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195,which is incorporated by reference herein.

The information management system 100 may also perform disaster recoveryoperations that make or retain disaster recovery copies, often assecondary, high-availability disk copies. The information managementsystem 100 may create secondary disk copies and store the copies atdisaster recovery locations using auxiliary copy or replicationoperations, such as continuous data replication technologies. Dependingon the particular data protection goals, disaster recovery locations canbe remote from the client computing devices 102 and primary storagedevices 104, remote from some or all of the secondary storage devices108, or both.

Data Processing and Manipulation Operations

As indicated, the information management system 100 can also beconfigured to implement certain data manipulation operations, whichaccording to certain embodiments are generally operations involving theprocessing or modification of stored data. Some data manipulationoperations include content indexing operations and classificationoperations can be useful in leveraging the data under management toprovide enhanced search and other features. Other data manipulationoperations such as compression and encryption can provide data reductionand security benefits, respectively.

Data manipulation operations can be different than data movementoperations in that they do not necessarily involve the copying,migration or other transfer of data (e.g., primary data 112 or secondarycopies 116) between different locations in the system. For instance,data manipulation operations may involve processing (e.g., offlineprocessing) or modification of already stored primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116. However, in some embodiments data manipulationoperations are performed in conjunction with data movement operations.As one example, the information management system 100 may encrypt datawhile performing an archive operation.

Content Indexing

In some embodiments, the information management system 100 “contentindexes” data stored within the primary data 112 and/or secondary copies116, providing enhanced search capabilities for data discovery and otherpurposes. The content indexing can be used to identify files or otherdata objects having pre-defined content (e.g., user-defined keywords orphrases), metadata (e.g., email metadata such as “to”, “from”, “cc”,“bcc”, attachment name, received time, etc.).

The information management system 100 generally organizes and cataloguesthe results in a content index, which may be stored within the mediaagent database 152, for example. The content index can also include thestorage locations of (or pointer references to) the indexed data in theprimary data 112 or secondary copies 116, as appropriate. The resultsmay also be stored, in the form of a content index database orotherwise, elsewhere in the information management system 100 (e.g., inthe primary storage devices 104, or in the secondary storage device108). Such index data provides the storage manager 140 or anothercomponent with an efficient mechanism for locating primary data 112and/or secondary copies 116 of data objects that match particularcriteria.

For instance, search criteria can be specified by a user through userinterface 158 of the storage manager 140. In some cases, the informationmanagement system 100 analyzes data and/or metadata in secondary copies116 to create an “off-line” content index, without significantlyimpacting the performance of the client computing devices 102. Dependingon the embodiment, the system can also implement “on-line” contentindexing, e.g., of primary data 112. Examples of compatible contentindexing techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, which isincorporated by reference herein.

Classification Operations—Metabase

In order to help leverage the data stored in the information managementsystem 100, one or more components can be configured to scan data and/orassociated metadata for classification purposes to populate a metabaseof information. Such scanned, classified data and/or metadata may beincluded in a separate database and/or on a separate storage device fromprimary data 112 (and/or secondary copies 116), such that metabaserelated operations do not significantly impact performance on othercomponents in the information management system 100.

In other cases, the metabase(s) may be stored along with primary data112 and/or secondary copies 116. Files or other data objects can beassociated with user-specified identifiers (e.g., tag entries) in themedia agent 144 (or other indices) to facilitate searches of stored dataobjects. Among a number of other benefits, the metabase can also allowefficient, automatic identification of files or other data objects toassociate with secondary copy or other information management operations(e.g., in lieu of scanning an entire file system). Examples ofcompatible metabases and data classification operations are provided inU.S. Pat. Nos. 8,229,954 and 7,747,579, which are incorporated byreference herein.

Encryption Operations

The information management system 100 in some cases is configured toprocess data (e.g., files or other data objects, secondary copies 116,etc.), according to an appropriate encryption algorithm (e.g., Blowfish,Advanced Encryption Standard [AES], Triple Data Encryption Standard[3-DES], etc.) to limit access and provide data security in theinformation management system 100.

The information management system 100 in some cases encrypts the data atthe client level, such that the client computing devices 102 (e.g., thedata agents 142) encrypt the data prior to forwarding the data to othercomponents, e.g., before sending the data media agents 144 during asecondary copy operation. In such cases, the client computing device 102may maintain or have access to an encryption key or passphrase fordecrypting the data upon restore. Encryption can also occur whencreating copies of secondary copies, e.g., when creating auxiliarycopies. In yet further embodiments, the secondary storage devices 108can implement built-in, high performance hardware encryption.

Management Operations

Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous nature of theinformation management system 100 to provide useful system-widemanagement functions. As two non-limiting examples, the informationmanagement system 100 can be configured to implement operationsmanagement and e-discovery functions.

Operations management can generally include monitoring and managing thehealth and performance of information management system 100 by, withoutlimitation, performing error tracking, generating granularstorage/performance metrics (e.g., job success/failure information,deduplication efficiency, etc.), generating storage modeling and costinginformation, and the like.

Such information can be provided to users via the user interface 158 ina single, integrated view. For instance, the integrated user interface158 can include an option to show a “virtual view” of the system thatgraphically depicts the various components in the system usingappropriate icons. The operations management functionality canfacilitate planning and decision-making. For example, in someembodiments, a user may view the status of some or all jobs as well asthe status of each component of the information management system 100.Users may then plan and make decisions based on this data. For instance,a user may view high-level information regarding storage operations forthe information management system 100, such as job status, componentstatus, resource status (e.g., network pathways, etc.), and otherinformation. The user may also drill down or use other means to obtainmore detailed information regarding a particular component, job, or thelike.

In some cases the information management system 100 alerts a user suchas a system administrator when a particular resource is unavailable orcongested. For example, a particular primary storage device 104 orsecondary storage device 108 might be full or require additionalcapacity. Or a component may be unavailable due to hardware failure,software problems, or other reasons. In response, the informationmanagement system 100 may suggest solutions to such problems when theyoccur (or provide a warning prior to occurrence). For example, thestorage manager 140 may alert the user that a secondary storage device108 is full or otherwise congested. The storage manager 140 may thensuggest, based on job and data storage information contained in itsdatabase 146, an alternate secondary storage device 108.

Other types of corrective actions may include suggesting an alternatedata path to a particular primary or secondary storage device 104, 108,or dividing data to be stored among various available primary orsecondary storage devices 104, 108 as a load balancing measure or tootherwise optimize storage or retrieval time. Such suggestions orcorrective actions may be performed automatically, if desired. Furtherexamples of some compatible operations management techniques and ofinterfaces providing an integrated view of an information managementsystem are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated byreference herein. In some embodiments, the storage manager 140implements the operations management functions described herein.

The information management system 100 can also be configured to performsystem-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments. In general,e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and searchcapability for data in the system, such as data stored in the secondarystorage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or other secondary copies116). For example, the information management system 100 may constructand maintain a virtual repository for data stored in the informationmanagement system 100 that is integrated across source applications 110,different storage device types, etc. According to some embodiments,e-discovery utilizes other techniques described herein, such as dataclassification and/or content indexing.

Information Management Policies

As indicated previously, an information management policy 148 caninclude a data structure or other information source that specifies aset of parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated with secondarycopy or other information management operations.

One type of information management policy 148 is a storage policy.According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally comprises alogical container that defines (or includes information sufficient todetermine) one or more of the following items: (1) what data will beassociated with the storage policy; (2) a destination to which the datawill be stored; (3) datapath information specifying how the data will becommunicated to the destination; (4) the type of storage operation to beperformed; and (5) retention information specifying how long the datawill be retained at the destination.

Data associated with a storage policy can be logically organized intogroups, which can be referred to as “sub-clients”. A sub-client mayrepresent static or dynamic associations of portions of a data volume.Sub-clients may represent mutually exclusive portions. Thus, in certainembodiments, a portion of data may be given a label and the associationis stored as a static entity in an index, database or other storagelocation.

Sub-clients may also be used as an effective administrative scheme oforganizing data according to data type, department within theenterprise, storage preferences, or the like. Depending on theconfiguration, sub-clients can correspond to files, folders, virtualmachines, databases, etc. In one exemplary scenario, an administratormay find it preferable to separate e-mail data from financial data usingtwo different sub-clients.

A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a targetor destination storage device (or group of storage devices). Forinstance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a group ofdisk libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular disk libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the policy. As anotherexample, where the secondary storage devices 108 include one or moretape libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular tape libraryfor storing the sub-clients associated with the storage policy, and mayalso specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tapedrives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing thesub-client data.

Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy. Forinstance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and componentsto utilize when moving the data to the destination storage device(s). Insome embodiments, the storage policy specifies one or more media agents144 for conveying data (e.g., one or more sub-clients) associated withthe storage policy between the source (e.g., one or more host clientcomputing devices 102) and destination (e.g., a particular targetsecondary storage device 108).

A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of operations associatedwith the storage policy, such as a backup, archive, snapshot, auxiliarycopy, or the like. Retention information can specify how long the datawill be kept, depending on organizational needs (e.g., a number of days,months, years, etc.)

The information management policies 148 may also include one or morescheduling policies specifying when and how often to perform operations.Scheduling information may specify with what frequency (e.g., hourly,weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what triggering conditionssecondary copy or other information management operations will takeplace. Scheduling policies in some cases are associated with particularcomponents, such as particular sub-clients, client computing device 102,and the like. In one configuration, a separate scheduling policy ismaintained for particular sub-clients on a client computing device 102.The scheduling policy specifies that those sub-clients are to be movedto secondary storage devices 108 every hour according to storagepolicies associated with the respective sub-clients.

When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators canmanually configure information management policies 148 and/or othersettings, e.g., via the user interface 158. However, this can be aninvolved process resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to begindata protecting operations quickly.

Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100automatically applies a default configuration to client computing device102. As one example, when a data agent(s) 142 is installed on a clientcomputing devices 102, the installation script may register the clientcomputing device 102 with the storage manager 140, which in turn appliesthe default configuration to the new client computing device 102. Inthis manner, data protection operations can begin substantiallyimmediately. The default configuration can include a default storagepolicy, for example, and can specify any appropriate informationsufficient to begin data protection operations. This can include a typeof data protection operation, scheduling information, a target secondarystorage device 108, data path information (e.g., a particular mediaagent 144), and the like.

Other types of information management policies 148 are possible. Forinstance, the information management policies 148 can also include oneor more audit or security policies. An audit policy is a set ofpreferences, rules and/or criteria that protect sensitive data in theinformation management system 100. For example, an audit policy maydefine “sensitive objects” as files or objects that contain particularkeywords (e.g. “confidential,” or “privileged”) and/or are associatedwith particular keywords (e.g., in metadata) or particular flags (e.g.,in metadata identifying a document or email as personal, confidential,etc.).

An audit policy may further specify rules for handling sensitiveobjects. As an example, an audit policy may require that a reviewerapprove the transfer of any sensitive objects to a cloud storage site,and that if approval is denied for a particular sensitive object, thesensitive object should be transferred to a local storage device 104instead. To facilitate this approval, the audit policy may furtherspecify how a secondary storage computing device 106 or other systemcomponent should notify a reviewer that a sensitive object is slated fortransfer.

In some implementations, the information management policies 148 mayinclude one or more provisioning policies. A provisioning policy caninclude a set of preferences, priorities, rules, and/or criteria thatspecify how clients 102 (or groups thereof) may utilize systemresources, such as available storage on cloud storage and/or networkbandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies, for example, data quotas forparticular client computing devices 102 (e.g. a number of gigabytes thatcan be stored monthly, quarterly or annually). The storage manager 140or other components may enforce the provisioning policy. For instance,the media agents 144 may enforce the policy when transferring data tosecondary storage devices 108. If a client computing device 102 exceedsa quota, a budget for the client computing device 102 (or associateddepartment) is adjusted accordingly or an alert may trigger.

While the above types of information management policies 148 have beendescribed as separate policies, one or more of these can be generallycombined into a single information management policy 148. For instance,a storage policy may also include or otherwise be associated with one ormore scheduling, audit, or provisioning policies. Moreover, whilestorage policies are typically associated with moving and storing data,other policies may be associated with other types of informationmanagement operations. The following is a non-exhaustive list of itemsthe information management policies 148 may specify:

-   -   schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when        and/or how often to perform information management operations;    -   the type of secondary copy 116 and/or secondary copy format        (e.g., snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);    -   a location or a class or quality of storage for storing        secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary        storage devices 108);    -   preferences regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress,        deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform secondary copies        116;    -   which system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred        media agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage        operations;    -   resource allocation between different computing devices or other        system components used in performing information management        operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage        capacity, etc.);    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services; and    -   retention information specifying the length of time primary data        112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a        particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the        information management system 100.

Policies can additionally specify or depend on a variety of historicalor current criteria that may be used to determine which rules to applyto a particular data object, system component, or information managementoperation, such as:

-   -   frequency with which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of        a data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since        the creation or modification of a data object);    -   deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,        deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other        metrics);    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components (e.g., with secondary storage devices 108);    -   the identity of users, applications 110, client computing        devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,        accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or        secondary copies 116;    -   a relative sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality) of a data object,        e.g., as determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   the current or historical storage capacity of various storage        devices;    -   the current or historical network capacity of network pathways        connecting various components within the storage operation cell;    -   access control lists or other security information; and    -   the content of a particular data object (e.g., its textual        content) or of metadata associated with the data object.        Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Storage Operations

FIG. 1E shows a data flow data diagram depicting performance of storageoperations by an embodiment of an information management system 100,according to an exemplary data storage policy 148A. The informationmanagement system 100 includes a storage manger 140, a client computingdevice 102 having a file system data agent 142A and an email data agent142B residing thereon, a primary storage device 104, two media agents144A, 144B, and two secondary storage devices 108A, 108B: a disk library108A and a tape library 108B. As shown, the primary storage device 104includes primary data 112A, 112B associated with a file systemsub-client and an email sub-client, respectively.

As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and the tapelibrary 108B are “off-site”, and may therefore be remotely located fromthe other components in the information management system 100 (e.g., ina different city, office building, etc.). In this manner, informationstored on the tape library 108B may provide protection in the event of adisaster or other failure.

The file system sub-client and its associated primary data 112A incertain embodiments generally comprise information generated by the filesystem and/or operating system of the client computing device 102, andcan include, for example, file system data (e.g., regular files, filetables, mount points, etc.), operating system data (e.g., registries,event logs, etc.), and the like. The e-mail sub-client, on the otherhand, and its associated primary data 112B, include data generated by ane-mail client application operating on the client computing device 102,and can include mailbox information, folder information, emails,attachments, associated database information, and the like. As describedabove, the sub-clients can be logical containers, and the data includedin the corresponding primary data 112A, 112B may or may not be storedcontiguously.

The exemplary storage policy 148A includes a backup copy rule set 160, adisaster recovery copy rule set 162, and a compliance copy rule set 164.The backup copy rule set 160 specifies that it is associated with a filesystem sub-client 166 and an email sub-client 168. Each of thesesub-clients 166, 168 are associated with the particular client computingdevice 102. The backup copy rule set 160 further specifies that thebackup operation will be written to the disk library 108A, anddesignates a particular media agent 144A to convey the data to the disklibrary 108A. Finally, the backup copy rule set 160 specifies thatbackup copies created according to the rule set 160 are scheduled to begenerated on an hourly basis and to be retained for 30 days. In someother embodiments, scheduling information is not included in the storagepolicy 148A, and is instead specified by a separate scheduling policy.

The disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same twosub-clients 166, 168. However, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162is associated with the tape library 108B, unlike the backup copy ruleset 160. Moreover, the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 specifiesthat a different media agent 144B than the media agent 144A associatedwith the backup copy rule set 160 will be used to convey the data to thetape library 108B. As indicated, disaster recovery copies createdaccording to the rule set 162 will be retained for 60 days, and will begenerated on a daily basis. Disaster recovery copies generated accordingto the disaster recovery copy rule set 162 can provide protection in theevent of a disaster or other data-loss event that would affect thebackup copy 116A maintained on the disk library 108A.

The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the emailsub-client 166, and not the file system sub-client 168. Compliancecopies generated according to the compliance copy rule set 164 willtherefore not include primary data 112A from the file system sub-client166. For instance, the organization may be under an obligation to storemaintain copies of email data for a particular period of time (e.g., 10years) to comply with state or federal regulations, while similarregulations do not apply to the file system data. The compliance copyrule set 164 is associated with the same tape library 108B and mediaagent 144B as the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, although adifferent storage device or media agent could be used in otherembodiments. Finally, the compliance copy rule set 164 specifies thatcopies generated under the compliance copy rule set 164 will be retainedfor 10 years, and will be generated on a quarterly basis.

At step 1, the storage manager 140 initiates a backup operationaccording to the backup copy rule set 160. For instance, a schedulingservice running on the storage manager 140 accesses schedulinginformation from the backup copy rule set 160 or a separate schedulingpolicy associated with the client computing device 102, and initiates abackup copy operation on an hourly basis. Thus, at the scheduled timeslot the storage manager 140 sends instructions to the client computingdevice 102 to begin the backup operation.

At step 2, the file system data agent 142A and the email data agent 142Bresiding on the client computing device 102 respond to the instructionsreceived from the storage manager 140 by accessing and processing theprimary data 112A, 112B involved in the copy operation from the primarystorage device 104. Because the operation is a backup copy operation,the data agent(s) 142A, 142B may format the data into a backup format orotherwise process the data.

At step 3, the client computing device 102 communicates the retrieved,processed data to the first media agent 144A, as directed by the storagemanager 140, according to the backup copy rule set 160. In some otherembodiments, the information management system 100 may implement aload-balancing, availability-based, or other appropriate algorithm toselect from the available set of media agents 144A, 144B. Regardless ofthe manner the media agent 144A is selected, the storage manager 140 mayfurther keep a record in the storage manager database 140 of theassociation between the selected media agent 144A and the clientcomputing device 102 and/or between the selected media agent 144A andthe backup copy 116A.

The target media agent 144A receives the data from the client computingdevice 102, and at step 4 conveys the data to the disk library 108A tocreate the backup copy 116A, again at the direction of the storagemanager 140 and according to the backup copy rule set 160. The secondarystorage device 108A can be selected in other ways. For instance, themedia agent 144A may have a dedicated association with a particularsecondary storage device(s), or the storage manager 140 or media agent144A may select from a plurality of secondary storage devices, e.g.,according to availability, using one of the techniques described in U.S.Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to include dataand/or metadata related to the backup copy 116A, such as informationindicating where the backup copy 116A resides on the disk library 108A,data and metadata for cache retrieval, etc. After the 30 day retentionperiod expires, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144Ato delete the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A.

At step 5, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of a disasterrecovery copy 1166 according to the disaster recovery copy rule set 162.For instance, at step 6, based on instructions received from the storagemanager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 144B retrieves the mostrecent backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A.

At step 7, again at the direction of the storage manager 140 and asspecified in the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, the media agent144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy 116B onthe tape library 108B. In some cases, the disaster recovery copy 1166 isa direct, mirror copy of the backup copy 116A, and remains in the backupformat. In other embodiments, the disaster recovery copy 116C may begenerated in some other manner, such as by using the primary data 112A,1126 from the storage device 104 as source data. The disaster recoverycopy operation is initiated once a day and the disaster recovery copies116A are deleted after 60 days.

At step 8, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of acompliance copy 116C, according to the compliance copy rule set 164. Forinstance, the storage manager 140 instructs the media agent 144B tocreate the compliance copy 116C on the tape library 108B at step 9, asspecified in the compliance copy rule set 164. In the example, thecompliance copy 116C is generated using the disaster recovery copy 116B.In other embodiments, the compliance copy 116C is instead generatedusing either the primary data 112B corresponding to the email sub-clientor using the backup copy 116A from the disk library 108A as source data.As specified, compliance copies 116C are created quarterly, and aredeleted after ten years.

While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restoreoperation can be initiated involving one or more of the secondary copies116A, 1166, 116C. As one example, a user may manually initiate a restoreof the backup copy 116A by interacting with the user interface 158 ofthe storage manager 140. The storage manager 140 then accesses data inits index 150 (and/or the respective storage policy 148A) associatedwith the selected backup copy 116A to identify the appropriate mediaagent 144A and/or secondary storage device 116A.

In other cases, a media agent may be selected for use in the restoreoperation based on a load balancing algorithm, an availability basedalgorithm, or other criteria. The selected media agent 144A retrievesthe data from the disk library 108A. For instance, the media agent 144Amay access its index 153 to identify a location of the backup copy 116Aon the disk library 108A, or may access location information residing onthe disk 108A itself.

When the backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed, the mediaagent 144A accesses a cached version of the backup copy 116A residing inthe media agent index 153, without having to access the disk library108A for some or all of the data. Once it has retrieved the backup copy116A, the media agent 144A communicates the data to the source clientcomputing device 102. Upon receipt, the file system data agent 142A andthe email data agent 142B may unpackage (e.g., restore from a backupformat to the native application format) the data in the backup copy116A and restore the unpackaged data to the primary storage device 104.

Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting

The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary, dependingon the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116 are formatted asa series of logical data units or “chunks” (e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can facilitate efficient communication andwriting to secondary storage devices 108, e.g., according to resourceavailability. For example, a single secondary copy 116 may be written ona chunk-by-chunk basis to a single secondary storage device 108 oracross multiple secondary storage devices 108. In some cases, users canselect different chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput to tapestorage devices.

Generally, each chunk can include a header and a payload. The payloadcan include files (or other data units) or subsets thereof included inthe chunk, whereas the chunk header generally includes metadata relatingto the chunk, some or all of which may be derived from the payload. Forexample, during a secondary copy operation, the media agent 144, storagemanager 140, or other component may divide the associated files intochunks and generate headers for each chunk by processing the constituentfiles.

The headers can include a variety of information such as fileidentifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other information associatedwith the payload data items, a chunk sequence number, etc. Importantly,in addition to being stored with the secondary copy 116 on the secondarystorage device 108, the chunk headers can also be stored to the index153 of the associated media agent(s) 144 and/or the storage managerindex 150. This is useful in some cases for providing faster processingof secondary copies 116 during restores or other operations. In somecases, once a chunk is successfully transferred to a secondary storagedevice 108, the secondary storage device 108 returns an indication ofreceipt, e.g., to the media agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, whichmay update their respective indexes 150, 153 accordingly.

During restore, chunks may be processed (e.g., by the media agent 144)according to the information in the chunk header to reassemble thefiles. Additional information relating to chunks can be found in U.S.Pat. No. 8,156,086, which is incorporated by reference herein.

System Overview

The systems and methods described with respect to FIGS. 1A-1E can beused for partial file restore. In some embodiments, a partial filerestore module is a software module that forms a part of or resides onthe storage manager 140 or, alternatively, the media agents 144. Thepartial file restore module can additionally be a software moduleexecuting on one or more of the client computers 102. For instance, insome embodiments, the partial file restore module may be implemented asa part of the data agent 142. Partial file restore will be discussed inmore detail with respect to FIGS. 2-5.

An Exemplary Data Storage System for Implementing Partial File Restore

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrative of the interaction betweenthe various components of an exemplary storage system 200 configured toimplement an in-chunk index for partial file restore, according tocertain embodiments. As illustrated, the exemplary data storage system200 includes a storage manager 210, a client 220, an information store230, one or more partial file restore modules 250, one or moreapplications 260, one or more media agents 270, and one or moresecondary storage devices 280. The system 200 and correspondingcomponents of FIG. 2 may be similar to or the same as the system 100 andsimilarly named components of FIG. 1D. Moreover, depending on theembodiment, the system 200 of FIG. 2 may additionally include any of theother components shown in FIG. 1D that are not specifically shown inFIG. 2 (e.g., one or more data agents, etc.). The system 200 may includeone or more of each component. All components of the system 200 can bein direct communication with each other or communicate indirectly viathe client 220, the storage manager 210, the media agent 270, or thelike. In certain embodiments, some of the components in FIG. 2 shown asseparate components can reside on a single computing device, or viceversa. For example, the partial file restore module 250 can be on themedia agent 270 or on a separate computing device.

With further reference to FIG. 2, the interaction between the variouscomponents of the exemplary data storage system will now be described ingreater detail with respect to data flow steps indicated by the numberedarrows.

Files in primary storage may be copied to secondary storage, e.g., aspart of a backup, archive, or other secondary copy operation. The copiesof files in secondary storage may be referred to as secondary copies ofthe files. Partial file restore may refer to restoring a portion of asecondary copy of a file, instead of restoring the entire secondarycopy. In many cases, only a portion of the secondary copy may be needed.For example, the user may select a video file for playback, where thevideo file resides in secondary storage. But the user may want to startwatching from a certain point into the movie. In such case, restoringonly the desired portion of the secondary copy can save a significantamount of time, especially for large files like video files.

The user may indicate the portion of the secondary copy to restore usingan interface of the native application associated with the file. Forexample, in case of a video file, the user may drag the playback sliderin the graphical user interface (GUI) of a video playback application toa particular point from which the user wishes to view the video. Theapplication can determine the application offset that corresponds to thepoint selected by the user in the GUI, and the application offset candesignate the starting position for the portion of the file to berestored. The application may indicate the application offset for thestarting point of the portion, or indicate the application offsets forboth the starting point and end point of the portion. However,application offsets may not map to corresponding offsets in thesecondary copy. For instance, secondary copies may includebackup-related metadata at the beginning, e.g., in the header. Inaddition, the data for the secondary copies may have been deduplicated,compressed, etc. Therefore, there is a need for mapping the applicationoffsets to the secondary copy offsets in an easily accessible andefficient manner. The system 200 can provide one or more in-chunkindexes that include information about the mapping between theapplication offsets and the secondary copy offsets.

As explained above, a “chunk” may refer to logical data units in whichsecondary copies are stored. Secondary copies may be formatted and/ororganized as a series of chunks, and may be written to secondary storageon a chunk-by-chunk basis. The chunk size can be defined according tothe requirements of the system 200 (e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8GB chunks). Formatting secondary copies in chunks can facilitateefficient communication and writing to secondary storage devices. Forexample, a larger chunk size can provide better throughput when writingdata to secondary storage (e.g., tape media). A chunk may includemultiple files, and a file may span across multiple chunks. FIG. 2illustrates chunks C₁ through C_(n) 285 in Storage Device 1 280 a. Asshown, chunk C₂ 285 b includes multiple files (files F1 and F2). File F3spans across multiple chunks. File F3 starts in chunk C₂ 285 b, andcontinues through chunk C₃ 285 c and one or more subsequent chunks (notshown). Chunks are explained in more detail above.

Each chunk may have associated metadata information or index files. Anin-chunk index can include the mapping information between theapplication offsets and secondary copy offsets for one or more files.The in-chunk index may be included in the chunk metadata information, ormay be an index file associated with the chunk. In-chunk indexes will beexplained in more detail with respect to data flow step 2.

At data flow step 1, the storage manager 210 initiates backup of primarystorage data to secondary storage. The backup (or other secondary copyoperation) may run according to a schedule, at user request, based on astorage policy such as any of the storage policies described herein,based on certain events, etc. A schedule may be based on the passage ofa pre-determined amount of time, such as on a regular basis (e.g., aftera particular time interval, such as a certain number of hours or days),or on an intermittent basis. Backup may also be event-based and may betriggered by certain events. Backup can be implemented as one or morestorage policies, and the storage manager 210 may manage such storagepolicies. In some embodiments, the system 200 may provide partial filerestore feature as an option during backup. For example, the systemadministrator may select partial file restore as one of the backupparameters, causing the system 200 to create an in-chunk index in thebackup copy to enable later partial file recovery.

The storage manager 210 may instruct one or more media agents 270 tocopy the data from primary storage (e.g., information store 230) tosecondary storage (e.g., storage devices 280). A media agent 270 maywrite data to a buffer in order to copy the data to secondary storage.The buffer may have a fixed size. The buffer size can be selected basedon the bandwidth and other requirements of the system 200 (e.g., 64 KB,etc.). The amount of data written to the buffer can vary depending oneach write operation. For instance, the amount of data that is writtenin a write operation can range anywhere from greater than 0 to the sizeof the buffer. Accordingly, the amount of data written to the buffer canbe dynamic and indeterminate. Moreover, as will be described further,mapping entries in the in-chunk index are generally written to the chunkfor a given portion of the file at the time that portion is written tothe secondary storage device using the buffer. It can be important thatthe mapping entries (e.g., application offset/secondary copy offsetpairs) are stored at the time of the corresponding buffer write. Forexample, it would be difficult or impractical to determine the correctmapping information at a later point in time, after one or moresubsequent buffer writes, due of the indeterminate nature of the bufferwrite size.

The storage manager 210 and/or the media agents 270 may storeinformation relating to the backup in their respective indexes 215, 275.For example, the storage manager index 215 can include information aboutwhich backup copies and/or operations are associated with which mediaagents 270. In FIG. 2, a first backup B1 and a second backup B2 areassociated with Media Agent 1 270 a, and a third backup B3 and a fourthbackup B4 are associated with Media Agent 2 270 b. The media agentindex(es) 275 can include information about which files are associatedwith which backup copies and/or operations and any related information(e.g., beginning offset of a file in a backup copy). In FIG. 2, theindex 275 a for Media Agent 1 270 a indicates that files F1, F2, and F3are associated with backup B1, and that file F4 is associated withbackup B2. The media agent index 275 a also includes information aboutthe beginning offset of each file in the backup copy, e.g., the locationin the backup copy at which the particular file begins. For instance,file F1 in backup B1 begins at offset 01; file F2 in backup B1 begins atoffset 02; file F3 in backup B1 begins at offset 03; and file F4 inbackup B2 begins at offset 04.

The media agents 270 may copy and store the data in the storage devices280 in chunks 285. In FIG. 2, files F1, F2, F3, and F4 are stored invarious chunks 285 (e.g., chunks C₁ through C_(n)). File F1 starts inchunk C₁ 285 a and ends in chunk C₂ 285 b; file F2 starts and ends inchunk C₂ 285 b; file F3 starts in chunk C₂ 285 b and continues throughat least chunk C₃ 285 c; and file F4 starts in chunk C_(n) 285 d. Achunk 285 can contain multiple files like chunks C₁ 285 a, C₂ 285 b, andC_(n) 285 d. Or a chunk 285 can contain one file like chunk C₃ 285 c. Afile can be stored in one chunk 285 like file F2, or can be stored inmultiple chunks 285 like files F1 and F3. As shown in FIG. 2, a backupcopy can be stored in multiple chunks 285. For instance, data for backupB1 is stored in chunks C₁, C₂, C₃ through C_(n) 285.

At data flow step 2, the partial file restore module 250 creates thein-chunk index 255 entry for the current portion of a file beingprocessed. The partial file restore module 250 creates one or morein-chunk indexes 255 for files that are being copied to secondarystorage. As explained above, the in-chunk index 255 entry for thecurrent portion of the file may be written to secondary storage at thetime the portion of the file is written to secondary storage.

The partial file restore module 250 may be a part of or associated witha media agent 270. The partial file restore module 250 creates thein-chunk index(es) 255, for example, during a backup. While describedwith respect to a backup copy operation for the purposes ofillustration, the techniques described herein are compatible with othertypes of storage operations, such as, for example, replication,snapshots, archiving and the like. A description of these and otherstorage operations compatible with embodiments described herein isprovided above. For example, the in-chunk index 255 may be createdduring archiving, instead of a backup.

As mentioned above, the application offsets for a file may not mapexactly to corresponding secondary copy offsets. Secondary copies caninclude backup related metadata and/or header information, and data forsecondary copies may be deduplicated and/or compressed during backup.Therefore, the corresponding offset in the secondary copy may not beeasily calculated or determined, and locating the corresponding offsetcan become complicated. Accordingly, the system 200 may provide amapping between application offsets and the corresponding secondary copyoffsets. Such mapping information can be especially useful for locatingparticular positions in large files. To allow for granular access, themapping information may include the application offset and thecorresponding secondary copy offset at various points throughout thefile, at a selected frequency (e.g., every N bytes).

The mapping information for a file can be included in an in-chunk index255 for the chunk 285 the file is stored in. As explained above, a chunk285 may include metadata information and/or index files associated withthe chunk 285. The in-chunk index 255 may be a part of the metadatainformation and/or may be one or more index files for the chunk 285. Thein-chunk index 255 for a chunk 285 can be written to storage devices 280with the chunk 285, e.g., as part of the chunk metadata information oras a chunk index file(s). The mapping information for a secondary copycan become quite extensive since mapping can be created for a number ofpoints in the file. By storing the in-chunk index 255 in-chunk on thesecondary storage devices 280, the system 200 can advantageouslymaintain the storage manager index 215 and/or the media agent index(es)275 at manageable sizes.

In some embodiments, the in-chunk index 255 may be stored in the storagemanager index 215 and/or the media agent index(es) 275, in addition toand/or instead of storing in storage devices 280 with the chunk 285itself. For example, some or all of the in-chunk index 255 may beaccessible in the storage manager index 215 and/or the media agentindex(es) 275, e.g., for faster searching within certain files.

The in-chunk index 255 can include the mapping information for all filesin the chunk 285. For example, in FIG. 2, the in-chunk index 255 forchunk C₁ 285 a can include the mapping information for file F1 as wellas any other files in chunk C₁ 285 a. The in-chunk index 255 may bestored in one in-chunk index file. In some embodiments, a separatein-chunk index 255 can be created for each file in the chunk 285, andthe in-chunk index 255 for the different files may be stored in separatein-chunk index files.

If a file is stored across multiple chunks 285 (e.g., files F1 and F3),each chunk 285 that stores a portion of the file may include mappinginformation for that portion of the file in its in-chunk index 255. InFIG. 2, for file F1, the in-chunk index 255 for chunk C₁ 285 a caninclude mapping information for the portion of file F1 stored in chunkC₁ 285 a, and the in-chunk index 255 for chunk C₂ 285 b can includemapping information for the portion of file F1 stored in chunk C₂ 285 b.Similarly, for file F3, chunk C₂ in-chunk index 255 can include themapping information for the portion of file F3 in chunk C₂ 285 b, chunkC₃ in-chunk index 255 can include the mapping information for theportion of file F3 in chunk C₃ 285 c, and so forth.

If a file spans across multiple chunks 285, the media agent index 275may include information about which part of the file is stored in whichchunk 285. For example, the media agent index 275 may indicate, for eachchunk 285, the beginning application offset for the part of the file inthe chunk 285 such that the system 200 can easily determine which chunk285 should be accessed to find the portion of the file to be restored.

An in-chunk index 255 can include any information relating to mappingapplication offsets for a file to secondary copy offsets for the file.The in-chunk index 255 may be structured in many different ways. In anillustrative example, FIG. 2 shows the in-chunk index 255 as includingvarious application offsets and corresponding secondary copy offsets.Secondary copy offsets may also be referred to as “archive offsets” asshown in FIG. 2, depending on the embodiment. If the in-chunk index 255includes the mapping for all files in the chunk 285, the in-chunk index255 may also provide information regarding which application offsetsrelate to which files in the chunk 285. For example, the in-chunk index255 in FIG. 2 can have an additional column indicating the file to whichthe application offsets belong. In some embodiments, the system 200 mayprovide another index that includes information about the location ofthe starting application offset record and the end application offsetrecord within the in-chunk index 255 for different files in the chunk285.

Although not shown in FIG. 2, the in-chunk index 255 may also includethe physical byte position in the chunk 285 that corresponds to thesecondary copy offset. By including the physical chunk byte information,the system 200 can directly access the actual byte position for thesecondary copy offset. This may be especially helpful when a file isstored across multiple chunks 285, and the secondary copy offset may notindicate directly where the point is located within the current chunk285.

The granularity at which the mapping entries are included in thein-chunk index 255 may be set according to the requirements of thesystem 200. As an example, mapping entries in the in-chunk index 255 maybe provided for at least every 1 MB. The granularity can become morerefined by selecting a smaller interval, but the size of the mappinginformation would increase accordingly. The interval at which themapping information is provided may not be a fixed interval. Asexplained with respect to data flow step 1, the media agents 270 maywrite data to the buffer when copying the data from primary storage tosecondary storage, and the amount of data written to the buffer maydiffer from one write operation to the next write operation wheniteratively writing the chunks with multiple buffer writes. Because ofthe dynamic nature of the amount of data that may be written to thebuffer during each write, the mapping entries may not be created atfixed intervals (e.g., at every 1 MB). Thus, the interval may beirregular and may not be predictable (e.g., from between 1 MB and N MBfor any given buffer write).

Respective application offsets and/or respective secondary file offsets(archive offsets) may be spaced from one another by the size of theinterval. As an example, a first mapping entry of an in-chunk index 255for a particular file has an application offset of 100 MB (and anarchive offset of 500 MB). A 4 MB chunk of the file is written to thechunk the next interval. Thus, the next mapping entry written to thein-chunk index 255 includes an application offset of 104 MB, and anarchive offset of 504 MB). In other embodiments, the application offsetand/or archive offset for the next entry do not increase by exactly 4MB, due to compression, embedded metadata or encryption information, orthe like. For instance, the next entry may include an application offsetof 104 MB, but an archive offset of 503 MB, where compression is appliedto the secondary copy of the file.

In FIG. 2, the in-chunk index 255 illustrates mapping information forfile F1. As mentioned above, an in-chunk index 255 can include themapping information for all files in the chunk 285. The in-chunk index255 in FIG. 2 includes application offsets and corresponding archiveoffsets. For example, application offset x₁ corresponds to archiveoffset y₁; application offset x₂ corresponds to archive offset y₂;application offset x₃ corresponds to archive offset y₃; and applicationoffset x_(n) corresponds to archive offset y_(n). Application offsetx_(n) corresponds to point x_(n) indicated in file F1 235 in theinformation store 230. As explained above, the interval betweenapplication offsets may not be fixed. For example, the interval betweenapplication offset x₁ and application offset x₂ may be different fromthe interval between application offset x₂ and application offset x₃. Inaddition, the interval between archive offsets may not be fixed. Forexample, the interval between archive offset y₁ and archive offset y₂may be different from the interval between archive offset y₂ and archiveoffset y₃. The interval between archive offsets may vary due tocompression, deduplication, etc.

At data flow step 3, the media agent 270 writes the current portion ofthe file and the corresponding in-chunk index 255 entry to the secondarystorage device 280. As mentioned above, the in-chunk index 255 can becopied to the storage devices 280 as a part of the chunk metadata and/oras a chunk index file(s). In this manner, the amount of information inthe storage manager index 215 and/or the media agent index(es) 275 canbe maintained at a manageable level. The system 200 can repeat data flowsteps 2 and 3 for each buffer write until the backup is complete.

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram illustrative of the interaction betweenthe various components of another exemplary storage system 300configured to implement partial file restore, according to certainembodiments. As illustrated, the exemplary data storage system 300includes a storage manager 310, a client 320, an information store 330,one or more partial file restore modules 350, one or more applications360, a media agent 370, and one or more secondary storage devices 380.The system 300 and corresponding components of FIG. 3 may be similar toor the same as the system 100, 200 and similarly named components ofFIGS. 1D and 2. Moreover, depending on the embodiment, the system 300 ofFIG. 3 may additionally include any of the other components shown inFIG. 1D that are not specifically shown in FIG. 3 (e.g., one or moredata agents, etc.). The system 300 may include one or more of eachcomponent. All components of the system 300 can be in directcommunication with each other or communicate indirectly via the client320, the storage manager 310, the media agent 370, or the like. Incertain embodiments, some of the components in FIG. 3 shown as separatecomponents can reside on a single computing device, or vice versa. Forexample, the partial level restore module 350 can be on the media agent370 or on a separate computing device.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the interaction between the variouscomponents of the exemplary data storage system will now be described ingreater detail with respect to data flow steps indicated by the numberedarrows.

At data flow step 1, the user selects a portion of a file to restoreusing partial file restore, e.g., at a client 320. The user may browsethe files that have been moved or copied to secondary storage via a userinterface. For instance, the user interface may be a file browsinginterface (e.g., Windows Explorer) provided by the operating and/or filesystem executing on the client device 320. Or the user may access thefiles using the interface of the native application used to view orotherwise access the file (e.g., a video playback application, wordprocessing application, or the like). The system 300 may providemetadata about the files, and a file may be opened using theapplication(s) 360 associated with the file. The user interface may insome cases also be provided through a file browsing interface providedby the storage manager 310 (e.g., the storage manager 310 console).

In an illustrative example, the user accesses a video file that havebeen archived (or otherwise copied) to secondary storage devices 380.According to certain embodiments, the file resides in secondary storageand is no longer in the native format of the source application, or isotherwise not directly usable by the source application. However, thisfact is transparent to the user in certain embodiments, because the fileis logically accessible via the file system executing on the client 320via a mount point to the secondary copy. Thus, when the user opens thefile (e.g., by opening the file using a file interface of a videoplayback application running on the client computing device 320, or byclicking on a file icon in Windows Explorer or another file systembrowser), the client 320, via the mount point, forwards the request toopen the file to the storage manager 310.

The user may choose the portion of the file to restore by interactingwith the application 360 associated with the file. For instance, theuser selects a portion of the file for playback or other access. As oneexample, the user may open a video file and scroll to a certain point inthe video, thereby selecting the starting point for the portion torestore. As another illustrative example, a user may drag a slider iconof a word processing application to scroll to a position towards the endof a very large text document that is being accessed from secondarystorage. The word processing application may buffer the document suchthat the entire document is not initially accessed. In such a case,instead of requesting a restore of the entire contents of the file fromthe initial position in the document to the scrolled-to position, theclient 320 may request that only a portion of the file is restored. Forinstance, the portion may correspond to one or more application offsetsin proximity to the scrolled-to position in the document (e.g.,corresponding to a certain buffered portion of the document whichincludes the scrolled-to position). In some embodiments, when the fileis initially opened, the application may request to restore only thebeginning portion of the file, and only the range of data correspondingto that portion may be restored from secondary storage.

When the user indicates the portion to be restored, the application 360can calculate and/or determine one or more corresponding applicationoffsets for the portion. For example, if the user scrolls to a point ina video file or in a text document, the application 360 may designatethe corresponding application offset as the start of the portion torestore. The system 300 may designate the number of bytes to restorefrom the starting application offset (e.g., to the end of the file, afixed number of bytes for buffering, etc.). In some embodiments, theapplication 360 can provide both the starting application offset and theend application offset.

At data flow step 2, the client 320 requests a restore of a selectedportion of the file. After the application 360 determines the startingapplication offset (or both the starting and end application offsets),the client 320 may, via the mount point, send a request to the storagemanager 310 to restore the portion of the file. For instance, based onthe user's input, the application 360 may determine the applicationoffset(s) and forward a request including the offset(s) and any otherappropriate information (e.g., file ID, starting application offset,etc.) to the file system executing on the client 320. In turn, the filesystem, via the mount point, forwards a request, again including theoffset(s) and any other appropriate information (e.g., file ID, startingapplication offset, etc.) to the storage manager 310 to restore theselected portion of the file. In some embodiments, a data agentexecuting on the client 320 may also be involved in generating therequest to the storage manager.

Upon receipt of the request, the storage manager 310 may instruct theappropriate media agent(s) 370 to restore the selected portion, e.g., byreferring to the storage manager index 315. For example, the request torestore may be for file F1, which is stored in backup B1 and in StorageDevice 1 380. The storage manager 310 can determine, e.g., by referringto the index 315, that the data for file F1 is part of backup B1 andthat backup B1 is associated with Media Agent 1 370. The storage manager310 then can instruct Media Agent 1 370 to restore the selected portion.

At data flow step 3, the partial file restore module 350 accesses thein-chunk index 355 for the chunk 385 in which the selected portion isstored, and searches for the corresponding portion start position in thesecondary copy using the in-chunk index 355. The partial file restoremodule 350 may be a part of or associated with a media agent 370. Themedia agent 370 that is instructed to restore the selected portion mayinstruct its associated partial file restore module 350 to access andsearch through the in-chunk index 355.

In FIG. 3, the secondary copy is referred to as an “archive file,” butthe secondary copy can be created through various types of storageoperations, such as, for example, backup, replication, snapshots, andthe like. Similarly, the in-chunk index 355 may also be created whileperforming various types of storage operations, such as, backup,replication, snapshots, archiving, and the like. The in-chunk index 355may be created in a similar manner and may have a similar format asdescribed in connection with FIG. 2.

In a specific, illustrative example relating to FIG. 3, the user selectsfile F1, which has been copied to Storage Device 1 380. The user opensfile F1 using the application 360 associated with file F1. The userinteracts with the application to select a portion of the file torestore which corresponds to a starting application offset x_(o). FileF1 starts in Chunk C₁ 385 a and ends in Chunk C₂ 385 b. As explainedwith respect to FIG. 2, if a file is stored across multiple chunks 385,the media agent index 375 may include information about which part ofthe file is stored in which chunk 385. For instance, the media agentindex 375 may include information about the starting application offsetfor the file portion in each chunk 385. In this example, Media Agent 1370 may indicate that the starting application offset for file F1 inchunk C₂ 385 b is x_(p). Since the user selected application offset isx_(o), which is prior to x_(p), Media Agent 1 370 can determine that itshould access the in-chunk index 355 for chunk C₁ 385 a. For the chunk385 in which the file begins, the media agent index 375 may not need toinclude information about the starting application offset for the fileportion in the chunk 385.

Because the interval between the application offsets may not be fixed,as explained with respect to FIG. 2, the partial file restore module 350may need to search through the application offsets in the in-chunk index355. But the number of application offsets in the in-chunk index 355 canbe quite large (e.g., for video or other media files), and therefore,there is a need to locate the corresponding secondary copy offset in aquick and efficient manner. Various search techniques may be used tosearch through the mapping information to locate the correspondingsecondary copy offset.

One example of such technique is the binary search. For instance, thepartial file restore module 350 may start the search in the middle ofthe application offsets. If the middle application offset is the same asthe user application offset, the partial file restore module 350 can usethe corresponding secondary offset. If the requested application offsetis less than the middle application offset, the partial file restoremodule 350 compares the user application offset with the middleapplication offset of the lower half of the application offsets. If theuser selected application offset is greater than the middle applicationoffset, the partial file restore module 350 compares the userapplication offset with the middle application offset in the upper halfof the application offsets. The partial file restore module 350 canrepeat the binary search process until an application offset equal tothe user application offset is found or until it is determined that suchoffset does not exist.

Depending on the level of granularity and other factors (e.g., whetherthe interval is fixed or not), the in-chunk index may not include amapping entry having an application offset that exactly corresponds tothe requested application offset. In such cases, the partial filerestore module 350 can use the binary search or other search process tolocate an application offset in proximity to the requested applicationoffset (e.g., the nearest application offset prior to the requestedapplication offset) and restore starting from that application offset.In such a case, in order to inform the application 360 that the restoredfile portion does not begin exactly at the requested location, thepartial file restore module 350 or other component can send informationback to the application 360 indicating the actual starting applicationoffset for the restored portion.

In the specific example, the partial file restore module 350 accessesthe in-chunk index 355 for chunk C₁ 385 a and performs a binary searchto locate the entry in the in-chunk index including an applicationoffset that is the same as or closest to the desired application offsetx_(o). The in-chunk index 355 for file F1 does not include an entryhaving the application offset x_(o), and the closest application offsetthat is included in an entry in the in-chunk index is x_(n), which isless than x_(o). Accordingly, the partial file restore module 350determines that the nearest secondary copy offset that comes before therequested offset is x_(n).

At data flow 4, the media agent 370 restores the selected portion. Oncethe partial file restore module 350 locates the corresponding or nearestapplication offset, the media agent 370 can begin restoring the data forthe user selected portion. In some embodiments, the in-chunk index 355may include information about the physical chunk byte position for thesecondary copy offsets, and the media agent 370 can seek to the physicalbyte position and start restoring from that position. The media agent370 can restore the portion to primary storage (e.g., the informationstore 330). The media agent 370 may send any related information to theapplication 360, such as the restore application offset, correspondingsecondary copy offset, etc. For example, if the application offset doesnot map exactly to the user selected application offset, the media agent370 can send the actual application offset information to theapplication 360. The application 360 can adjust the application offsetaccordingly when the user accesses the restored portion.

In this manner, the system 300 may restore the user selected portion ofa file from secondary storage in a fast and efficient manner. Byproviding mapping information between application offsets and secondarycopy offsets, the system 300 can quickly locate the corresponding ornearest secondary copy offset for the user selected application offset.Using the in-chunk index 355, the system 300 can provide a fast responsetime for the restore and a positive user experience. In addition, thein-chunk index 355 may be stored in secondary storage, reducing theamount of data included in the storage manager index 315 and/or themedia manager index(es) 375. Partial file restore can reduce the amountof time and resources for restoring files from secondary storage.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrative of one embodiment of a routine forcreating in-chunk index for partial file restore according to certainembodiments. The routine 400 is described with respect to the system 200of FIG. 2. However, one or more of the steps of routine 400 may beimplemented by other data storage systems, such as those described ingreater detail above with reference to FIG. 1D. The routine 400 can beimplemented by any one, or a combination of, a client, a storagemanager, a data agent, a partial file restore module, a media agent, andthe like. Moreover, further details regarding certain aspects of atleast some of steps of the routine 400 are described in greater detailabove with reference to FIG. 2. Although described in relation to backupoperations for the purposes of illustration, the process of FIG. 4 canbe compatible with other types of storage operations, such as, forexample, migration, snapshots, replication operations, archiving, andthe like.

At block 401, the storage manager 210 receives instructions to back upfiles. The storage manager 210 may instruct one or more media agents 270to initiate backup.

At block 402, the partial file restore module 250 creates one or morein-chunk indexes 255 for the files. The partial file restore module 250may be a part of a media agent 270. When the media agents 270 areinstructed to perform a backup, the media agents 270 may instruct therespective partial file restore modules 250 to create the in-chunk index255.

At block 403, the media agents 270 copy the files and the in-chunkindexes 255 to the secondary storage devices 280. The in-chunk index 255for a chunk 285 can be stored with the chunk 285 in the storage devices280. The in-chunk index 255 may be stored as a part of the chunkmetadata and/or as one or more chunk index files.

As explained in connection with FIG. 2, an in-chunk index 255 entry maybe created for each buffer write. For example, the partial file restoremodule 250 creates the in-chunk index 255 entry for the portion of thefile being processed in the current buffer write operation, and themedia agent 270 writes the portion of the file and the in-chunk index255 entry to the storage device 280.

The routine 400 can include fewer, more, or different blocks than thoseillustrated in FIG. 4 without departing from the spirit and scope of thedescription. Moreover, it will be appreciated by those skilled in theart and others that some or all of the functions described in thisdisclosure may be embodied in software executed by one or moreprocessors of the disclosed components and mobile communication devices.The software may be persistently stored in any type of non-volatilestorage.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrative of one embodiment of a routine forrestoring a file using partial file restore according to certainembodiments. The routine 500 is described with respect to the system 300of FIG. 3. However, one or more of the steps of routine 500 may beimplemented by other data storage systems, such as those described ingreater detail above with reference to FIGS. 1D and 2. The routine 500can be implemented by any one, or a combination of, a client, a storagemanager, a data agent, a partial level restore module, a media agent,and the like. Moreover, further details regarding certain aspects of atleast some of steps of the routine 500 are described in greater detailabove with reference to FIG. 3. Although described in relation to backupoperations for the purposes of illustration, the process of FIG. 5 canbe compatible with other types of storage operations, such as, forexample, migration, snapshots, replication operations, archiving, andthe like.

At block 501, the storage manager 310 receives instructions to restore aportion of a file, e.g., from a client 320. The storage manager 310 mayreceive one or more application offsets for the portion to be restored.The storage manager 310 may determine which media agent(s) 370 should beinstructed to restored the requested data (e.g., by referring to thestorage manager index 315).

At block 502, the appropriate media agent(s) 370 accesses the in-chunkindex 355 for the file in the secondary storage devices 370. Forexample, the media agent 370 may determine which chunk 385 stores theportion of the file to be restored (e.g., by referring to the mediaagent index 375). Once the media agent 370 determines the chunk 385 tobe restored, the media agent 370 accesses the in-chunk index 355 forthat chunk 385.

At block 503, the partial file restore module 350 searches for the startof the portion in the secondary copy using the in-chunk index 355. Thepartial file restore module 350 may be a part of the media agent 370,and the media agent 370 may instruct the partial file restore module 350to search through the in-chunk index 355. The partial file restoremodule 350 can perform a search through the application offsets in thein-chunk index 355 to find the corresponding or nearest secondary copyoffset.

At block 504, the media agent 370 restores the corresponding portion ofthe secondary copy from the storage devices 380. Once the partial filerestore module 350 determines the corresponding or nearest secondarycopy offset, the media agent 370 can restore the data starting from thesecondary copy offset. The media agent 370 may restore a certain numberof bytes from the secondary copy offset, or may restore to the end ofthe chunk or file. After the media agent 370 begins restoring the data,the application 360 can start accessing the restored data in theinformation store 330.

The routine 500 can include fewer, more, or different blocks than thoseillustrated in FIG. 5 without departing from the spirit and scope of thedescription. Moreover, it will be appreciated by those skilled in theart and others that some or all of the functions described in thisdisclosure may be embodied in software executed by one or moreprocessors of the disclosed components and mobile communication devices.The software may be persistently stored in any type of non-volatilestorage.

Terminology

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of anyof the algorithms described herein can be performed in a differentsequence, can be added, merged, or left out all together (e.g., not alldescribed acts or events are necessary for the practice of thealgorithms). Moreover, in certain embodiments, acts or events can beperformed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing,interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or onother parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other modulesmay reside on servers, workstations, personal computers, computerizedtablets, PDAs, and other devices suitable for the purposes describedherein. Software and other modules may be accessible via local memory,via a network, via a browser, or via other means suitable for thepurposes described herein. Data structures described herein may comprisecomputer files, variables, programming arrays, programming structures,or any electronic information storage schemes or methods, or anycombinations thereof, suitable for the purposes described herein. Userinterface elements described herein may comprise elements from graphicaluser interfaces, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.

Further, the processing of the various components of the illustratedsystems can be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources. In addition, two or more components of a system canbe combined into fewer components. Various components of the illustratedsystems can be implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather thanin dedicated computer hardware systems. Likewise, the data repositoriesshown can represent physical and/or logical data storage, including, forexample, storage area networks or other distributed storage systems.Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between the componentsshown represent possible paths of data flow, rather than actualconnections between hardware. While some examples of possibleconnections are shown, any of the subset of the components shown cancommunicate with any other subset of components in variousimplementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer orother programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the acts specified in the flow chart and/or block diagramblock or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatusto cause a series of operations to be performed on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process suchthat the instructions which execute on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus provide steps for implementing the acts specifiedin the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments havebeen presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit thescope of the disclosure. Indeed, the novel methods and systems describedherein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, variousomissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the describedmethods and systems may be made without departing from the spirit of thedisclosure. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intendedto cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope andspirit of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of storing files in secondary storage ina data storage system, comprising: using one or more computing devicescomprising computer hardware: initiating copying of a plurality of filesfrom a primary storage subsystem to a secondary storage subsystem,wherein data stored on the secondary storage subsystem is stored in oneor more chunks, and each chunk is a logical data unit for storing thedata in the secondary storage subsystem in one or more secondary storagedevices residing in the secondary storage subsystem; copying a firstportion of a first file of the plurality of files from the primarystorage subsystem to a buffer for writing to the secondary storagesubsystem; creating a first entry in an index for a first chunk of theone or more chunks, the index stored in association with the first chunkin the secondary storage subsystem, the first entry corresponding to thefirst portion of the first file and comprising: a first applicationoffset determined by a software application that accessed the first fileand that corresponds to the first portion of the first file, wherein thefirst application offset designates a starting position within the firstfile of the first portion of the first file to be restored from asecondary copy of the first file in the first chunk stored in thesecondary storage subsystem; and a first secondary storage offsetindicating a location of the first portion of the first file within thesecondary copy of the first file in the first chunk in the secondarystorage subsystem; copying a second portion of the first file from theprimary storage subsystem to the buffer for writing to the secondarystorage subsystem; creating a second entry in the index for the firstchunk, the second entry corresponding to the second portion of the firstfile and comprising: a second application offset determined by thesoftware application that accessed the first file and that correspondsto the second portion of the first file, wherein the second applicationoffset designates a starting position within the first file of thesecond portion of the first file to be restored from the secondary copyof the first file in the first chunk stored in the secondary storagesubsystem; and a second secondary storage offset indicating a locationof the second portion of the first file within the secondary copy of thefirst file in the first chunk in the secondary storage subsystem;writing the first portion from the buffer to the location indicated bythe first secondary storage offset and writing the first entry to thefirst chunk in response to the first portion being written from thebuffer; and writing the second portion from the buffer to the locationindicated by the second secondary storage offset and writing the secondentry to the first chunk in response to the second portion being writtenfrom the buffer, wherein creation of the secondary copy involves aseries of transactions in which data is written to the buffer and thenwritten from the buffer to the secondary storage subsystem, and whereinan amount of data written to the buffer in each transaction is notpredetermined.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the index is containedwithin the first chunk.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of theone or more chunks is of equal size.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe first entry is written to the secondary storage subsystemsubstantially concurrently with the writing of the first portion of thefirst file to the first chunk, and the second entry is written to thesecondary storage subsystem substantially concurrently with the writingof the second portion of the first file to the first chunk.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: copying a third portion of thefirst file from the primary storage subsystem to the buffer for writingto the secondary storage subsystem; and creating a third entry in theindex for the first chunk, the third entry corresponding to the thirdportion of the first file and comprising: a third application offsetdetermined by the software application that accessed the first file andcorresponding to the third portion; and a third secondary storage offsetindicating a location of the third portion within the secondary copy ofthe first file in the first chunk in the secondary storage subsystem,wherein a first interval between the first application offset and thesecond application offset is different from a second interval betweenthe second application offset and the third application offset.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein a third interval between the first secondarystorage offset and the second secondary storage offset is different froma fourth interval between the second secondary storage offset and thethird secondary storage offset.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein saidwriting the first portion to the location indicated by the firstsecondary storage offset comprises deduplicating or compressing thefirst portion.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first chunkcomprises metadata information relating to the first file stored inassociation with the first file.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: copying a third portion of the first file from the primarystorage subsystem to the buffer for writing to the secondary storagesubsystem; creating a third entry in a second index for a second chunkof the one or more chunks, the second index stored in association withthe second chunk, the third entry corresponding to the third portion ofthe first file and comprising: a third application offset determined bythe software application that accessed the first file and correspondingto the third portion; a third secondary storage offset indicating alocation of the third portion within the secondary copy of the firstfile in the second chunk in the secondary storage subsystem; andcorresponding byte position information relating to a byte position ofthe third portion within the second chunk; and writing the third portionto the location indicated by the third second storage offset.
 10. A datastorage system for storing files in secondary storage, comprising: astorage manager executing on computer hardware and configured to:initiate copying of a plurality of files from primary storage subsystemto a secondary storage subsystem, wherein data stored on the secondarystorage subsystem is stored in one or more chunks, and each chunk is alogical data unit for storing the data in the secondary storagesubsystem in one or more secondary storage devices residing in thesecondary storage subsystem; and one or more computing devicescomprising computer hardware and configured to: copy a first portion ofthe first file of the plurality of files from the primary storagesubsystem to a buffer for writing to the secondary storage subsystem;create a first entry in an index for a first chunk of the one or morechunks, the index stored in association with the first chunk in thesecondary storage subsystem, the first entry corresponding to the firstportion of the first file and comprising: a first application offsetdetermined by a software application that accessed the first file andthat corresponds to the first portion of the first file, wherein thefirst application offset designates a starting position within the firstfile of the first portion of the first file to be restored from asecondary copy of the first file in the first chunk stored in thesecondary storage subsystem; and a first secondary storage offsetindicating a location of the first portion of the first file within thesecondary copy of the first file in the first chunk in the secondarystorage subsystem; copy a second portion of the first file from theprimary storage subsystem to the buffer for writing to the secondarystorage subsystem; create a second entry in the index for the firstchunk, the second entry corresponding to the second portion of the firstfile and comprising: a second application offset determined by thesoftware application that accessed the first file and that correspondsto the second portion of the first file, wherein the second applicationoffset designates a starting position within the first file of thesecond portion of the first file to be restored from the secondary copyof the first file in the first chunk stored in the secondary storagesubsystem; and a second secondary storage offset indicating a locationof the second portion within the secondary copy of the first file in thefirst chunk in the secondary storage subsystem; write the first portionfrom the buffer to the location indicated by the first secondary storageoffset and write the first entry to the first chunk in response to thefirst portion being written from the buffer; and write the secondportion from the buffer to the location indicated by the secondsecondary storage offset and write the second entry to the first chunkin response to the second portion being written from the buffer, whereincreation of the secondary copy involves a series of transactions inwhich data is written to the buffer and then written from the buffer tothe secondary storage subsystem, and wherein an amount of data writtento the buffer in each transaction is not predetermined.
 11. The systemof claim 10, wherein the index is contained within the first chunk. 12.The system of claim 10, wherein each of the one or more chunks is ofequal size.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first entry iswritten to the secondary storage subsystem substantially concurrentlywith the writing of the first portion of the first file to the firstchunk, and the second entry is written to the secondary storagesubsystem substantially concurrently with the writing of the secondportion of the first file to the first chunk.
 14. The system of claim10, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to:copy a third portion of the first file from the primary storagesubsystem to the buffer for writing to the secondary storage subsystem;and create a third entry in the index for the first chunk, the thirdentry corresponding to the third portion of the first file andcomprising: a third application offset determined by the softwareapplication that accessed the first file and corresponding to the thirdportion; and a third secondary storage offset indicating a location ofthe third portion within the secondary copy of the first file in thefirst chunk in the secondary storage subsystem, wherein a first intervalbetween the first application offset and the second application offsetis different from a second interval between the second applicationoffset and the third application offset.
 15. The system of claim 14,wherein a third interval between the first secondary storage offset andthe second secondary storage offset of the secondary copy is differentfrom a fourth interval between the second secondary storage offset andthe third secondary storage offset.
 16. The system of claim 10, whereinthe writing of the first portion to the location indicated by the firstsecondary storage offset is performed at least in part by deduplicatingor compressing the first portion.
 17. The system of claim 10, whereinthe first chunk comprises metadata information relating to the firstfile stored in association with the first file.
 18. The system of claim10, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to:copy a third portion of the first file from the primary storagesubsystem to the buffer for writing to the secondary storage subsystem;create a third entry in a second index for a second chunk of the one ormore chunks, the second index stored in association with the secondchunk, the third entry corresponding to the third portion of the firstfile and comprising: a third application offset determined by thesoftware application that accessed the first file and corresponding tothe third portion; a third secondary storage offset indicating alocation of the third portion within the secondary copy of the firstfile in the second chunk in the secondary storage subsystem; andcorresponding byte position information relating to a byte position ofthe third portion within the second chunk; and write the third portionto the location indicated by the third secondary storage offset withinthe second chunk.